Unlikely Visitor
by Poppysmic7
Summary: "What did I do," James whispered, glancing at Remus. "I don't know Prongs, but my best guess is that you somehow pulled your younger self forward in time." Canon Harry finds himself in another universe. Everyone seems sympathetic and willing to help him go back, but no one quite expected how shocking and charming one Harry Potter can be - and shock them he did. No bashing!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** The Cover Image is from upthehillart on tumblr. I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

"So Prongs, is there anything I can help you with or did you come here because you're bored," Remus asked.

Instead of an answer, James gave him a sheepish grin. Remus rolled his eyes in mock reprimand and resumed plotting down his recordings, but couldn't help the fond smile that escaped his lips. James was an Auror and sometimes he required help from the Unspeakables on the case he was working on, but he was also known to wander down the Department of Mysteries just to chat with Remus when he wasn't in the mood for filling out paperwork.

Remus was an Unspeakable - he loved his job and was grateful to have a stable income that enabled him to afford a regular supply of Wolfsbane Potion. He almost got used to thinking of himself as a normal wizard, but he never forgot the kindness and support his best friends showed him back when he thought himself a monster. Their bond had been tested twice; in their sixth year at Hogwarts when Sirius goaded Snape into following Remus on the night of the full moon (had something happened to Snape that night, Remus would have never forgiven Sirius). But nothing was worse than 1981 when Peter betrayed them and Lily and Harry were killed. The years that followed were filled with pain, anger and guilt. All Remus remembered doing was sleeping 12 hours a day, reading about the trials, unsuccessful job applications, counting the days until the next full moon and fearing that James would kill himself - and all the while the world was celebrating. Now, seventeen years later, each of the remaining Marauders had a job and their own place to call a home, but they spent almost as much time with one another as they did back in their school days. Even though Remus drank Wolfsbane and didn't really need them around for transformations anymore, Sirius and James would come every single full moon to keep him company. Everything seemed okay.

"What do you use this for, then?" James asked, referring to a glass dodecahedron. It was an ancient magical artefact, 6 feet tall with one of the faces serving as a door - it reminded Remus of a greenhouse. Inside it, in the very centre was a glowing ball that resembled a small star and the light reflecting off the glass made interesting rainbow patterns. Its surface was carved with hundreds of runes and the purpose of most of them was still being studied.

"Sorry Prongs, you know I can't share department's secrets," Remus said with a smile and once again focused his attention on the work before him. He didn't get a chance to lift his quill before being interrupted by a golden glow that the dodecahedron started emitting. James was standing next to it with a guilty look on his face. "What the fuck did you do," Remus hissed angrily as he jumped from his desk, "you should know better than to play with anything here!" He approached the dodecahedron just in time to see the golden glow fading and leaving in place - a person.

"James, tell me exactly what you did before this happened!"

"I-I am not sure, I just brushed my hand over this area here," he explained.

Remus took a deep breath, "Okay, _please_ tell me you remember which runes you touched."

James pointed out five runes and Remus quickly copied them down on a piece of paper. He then took another look at the person that laid unconscious inside, looking eerily familiar: It was a slender teenager dressed in muggle attire with messy, black hair, strong jawline and round glasses.

"What did I do," James whispered, glancing at Remus.

"I don't know Prongs, but my best guess is that you somehow pulled your younger self forward in time."

* * *

James was pacing in front of the fireplace at his apartment. Questions raced through his mind, but no logical answer came to accompany them.

He had followed instructions that Remus gave him and covered the boy (himself?) with the invisibility cloak and quickly ran back to the Auror Department to sign off. When he arrived home, he placed the boy under a strong sleeping spell, checked him for injuries and searched him. He found only a mokeskin pouch and a wand - neither of which had belonged to him at any point in time. He sent patronus messages to Sirius and Albus, asking them to come as soon as possible. He wasn't sure what prompted him to contact Dumbledore, but the relief he felt upon seeing him arrive assured James that it had been the right thing to do.

"Professor," James sighed, "thank you for coming on such short notice."

"It's not a problem, James, it's always good to see you," Albus said with a smile, "tell me what happened."

"I have a visitor that needs identifying," James replied, leading Albus towards the couch where the boy was sleeping.

A whoosh of flames was heard again, signalling Sirius' arrival. "Hello Albus, hi Prongs, is everyone alright?"

"Everyone is fine Padfoot, or at least I will be until Moony murders me," James said and then explained what happened earlier. He finished by stating Remus' first theory, but pointed out that the wand wasn't right.

"He does look a lot like you did when we graduated, but I don't recognize the clothes and the glasses are different shape as well, look," Sirius pointed out.

Dumbledore cast a few spells on the boy and then paused, seeming deep in thought. "I suggest we wait for Remus to come," he finally said.

James made them tea and, remembering how Albus always offers them sweets when they come to his office, he returned the favour and brought out some caramel cobwebs. By the time they finished their tea, Remus arrived with an armful of books.

"Well Prongs, the good news is that we don't have to fear for our timeline changing," he said, "as I am almost certain that one of those runes stood for a parallel universe."

"A parallel universe," James repeated, shocked.

"It's like an alternative dimension," said Remus, "are you all familiar with the theory?"

"I know the theory, but I never believed that it was actually true," Sirius said.

"Well, in the Department of Mysteries parallel universes have been studied for a long time, and while we are certain they exist, we haven't yet had any occurrences of travel between them," replied Remus tiredly, "or if we did, they could be classified and I probably wouldn't be told as it is not exactly my area of research."

"Do we have a way of sending him back," Dumbledore asked.

"I'm positive that I can work it out, I've already picked out all the books that contain the runes that James might have touched; however, we have to talk to the younger James first to find out _when_ does he come from."

"So, you still think that the boy is James," Sirius asked incredulously.

"If he travelled through space, why wouldn't he be able travel through time as well. It cannot be a coincidence that it was Prongs who touched that dodecahedron and then a person who looks like him just appears inside."

"I don't know, Moony," James replied, "his wand is different and I don't remember ever having the clothes that he is wearing."

"That is the whole point of an alternative dimension," Remus explained, "things are different. Who knows, maybe in that universe you were sorted into Hufflepuff."

James had a hard time believing him, but Sirius clapped his back and said "Don't worry Prongs, if there is a universe where you are a Hufflepuff, then I am one as well; there is no way the Hat would have separated us."

The blue eyes behind the half-moon spectacles were twinkling, but Albus had yet to give his opinion on the identity of the dimension traveler. "Well, gentlemen, I think it's time for us to talk to our visitor. However, if there is time travel involved, it would be wise for the three of you not to be in the same room to begin with, as it would cause some confusion."

The three Marauders nodded in agreement and stayed in the kitchen while Albus went back to the living room. They held their breaths as they listened to the shuffling in the adjoining room and the whispered "Rennervate!"


	2. Chapter 2

A groan could be heard, followed by a sharp intake of breath with a whispered, "Professor Dumbledore!"

Sirius, unable to just sit and listen, slowly moved towards the door to peek into the living room. His friends started waving their hands frantically to signal him to come back and sit down, but he was an Auror and a Marauder for goodness sake, he was perfectly able to discreetly observe.

The boy took his glasses off and after a quick glance at Dumbledore put them back. He then looked at the back of his hand as if to check something and said, matter-of-factly, "I'm not dead."  
Dumbledore chuckled and replied, "Indeed, my dear boy. But are you alright?"

Sirius tried to imagine what his teenage self would think if he found himself waking up in a room with Dumbledore beside him - probably that it was James under polyjuice, pranking him.

"I'm fine," the boy brushed the question off, "I'm more interested in checking your identity, sir." He looked at Dumbledore again, evaluating him. "What is your favourite flavour of jam," he finally asked.  
Dumbledore moved the sofa so that he could sit right across the boy, still obscuring him from Sirius' view. "Mmm, that would be raspberry. The house elves at Hogwarts are kind enough to always place a jar of it somewhere near my plate during breakfast."

The boy visibly relaxed and Sirius was impressed. Security questions were not something kids his age would usually think of. However, now that he heard his voice, Sirius was certain that this wasn't time travelling James.

"Do you mind if I ask another one?"

"I believe you just did," said Albus with a smile, "but ask away!"

The boy grinned, and Sirius could not deny that James smiled exactly like that when they shared an inside joke. They definitely had to be related in the other dimension that Moony talked about.

"I am thinking of buying a Christmas present for you, sir. But I can't decide what to buy. Is there any particular book you'd like?"

"Ah, books... I'm afraid I've read so many that I would much rather see a more practical present - a box of chocolates or a pair of nice socks. Although I must say, my boy, you've started thinking about presents rather early, it's only August."

"Merlin! Headmaster, I am so glad to see you that I would run to the closest mall right this moment to buy you all the socks you need."  
He smiled at Albus affectionately but then he started panicking, "Oh, no! Professor, I have no idea how, but I think I time-travelled!"

Sirius looked back at Remus and James, who seemed just as surprised as him that the boy caught up so quickly.

"We have to find a way for me to go back immediately! Who knows how many things I could change by being here, Hermione will freak out, she kept saying that we must not be seen…but I don't know how I did it, I just woke up here, I swear!"

Sirius again turned back to look at the other two and mouthed, "Hermione?"  
Remus shrugged and James shook his head.

"I believe you and you'll be pleased to hear that we have already started working on a way to send you back. I must ask first, even though I think I know the answer - what is your name?"

The boy snorted. "Sir, no offence, but that is a terrible security question. People tend to know the name of the person they polyjuice themselves into. Not to mention that it is myself we are talking about."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Why, you are right, of course! Would you mind if I cast a spell on you that enables me to know if you are telling the truth?"

The boy shifted in his seat and said, "I've never heard of such a spell before."

"It was invented fairly recently by a muggleborn witch. It's inspired by a Muggle lie detector and it works by measuring a heart rate of a person who is questioned. You see, unlike Veritaserum that forces the person to give an honest answer, this spell gives you the freedom to choose what information you wish to share with your interrogator. Very useful, indeed. Muggles are very creative and much better at avoiding moral issues than wizards - I must admit I'm looking forward to see more of their influence in our world."

The boy nodded, "Cast away, sir, just promise that you'll teach me the spell once we are finished. I still don't understand how come I haven't come across it before."

Sirius held his breath in anticipation and craned his neck to see Dumbledore casting the spell. A blue strand stretched from his wand and wrapped around the boy twice before disappearing.

"When you are ready, we can begin," Dumbledore said and the boy nodded again. "What's your name?"

"Harry Potter."

Sirius froze.

"And your date of birth?"

"July 31st, 1980."

Sirius saw a pale looking Remus lowering James into a chair. James was shaking and Sirius was torn between wanting to help him calm down and wanting to run into the living room to look at his long dead godson again. He settled on comforting James first, but soon found out that his hands were shaking as well.

"Do you know where you are?"

"No, sir."

"How did you come to a conclusion that time travel has taken place?"

"If I tell you, sir, I will reveal the information from the future."

"What date would be today if you were back where you came from?"

"August 14th, 1998."

Sirius fought the urge to say " _I told you so_ " to Remus, because today's date was indeed August 14th, 1998 and there was no time travelling involved.

"It is as I thought. Harry, have you ever heard of parallel universes?"

"Like in Muggle science fiction? I have heard of them, I just didn't know they actually existed."

Sirius smiled. This was surreal. His godson, whom he last saw when he was a baby, was in the room next to him. It wasn't _his_ godson, It was Harry Potter from another universe, but nevertheless, Sirius had the urge to hug him, jump up and down and maybe even cry - from joy or sorrow, he wasn't sure.

"Like I said, we can learn a lot from Muggles," said Albus and then accio-ed a Daily Prophet and handed it to Harry.  
Harry looked at the date and then quickly scanned the headlines. "Amazing," he whispered, "Hermione is going to flip out when I tell her. She'll make us all go to a library to research parallel universes with her."

"I assume you are referring to Miss Granger."

"Yeah, Ron and Hermione are my best friends. Are they not in this universe?"

Dumbledore was silent for a moment. "I'm afraid that your counterpart died many years ago," he said sadly.

Harry took time to ponder this, then asked, "Voldemort?"

If Albus was surprised by his assumption, he didn't show it. "He tried to kill you and failed, but unfortunately someone else came to finish the job."

Harry snorted. "Figures," he said, "the Boy-who-lived-to-get-hit-by-a-bus probably."

Sirius couldn't help the laugh that escaped him.

"Who else is here," asked Harry, sounding alarmed. "Was that Sirius?"

James and Remus were now staring at him. Silence stretched and realising that no one was coming to help him, Sirius cleared his throat and asked, "What gave me away?"

"Padfoot, I could recognise your laugh anywhere. Now come here, you twat."


	3. Chapter 3

Harry's heart was beating so wildly, it was a miracle it hasn't jumped out of his rib cage yet. For a moment he could only hear it thrumming in his ears. He could swear he just heard the bark-like laugh. He _knew_ that laugh. He _loved_ that laugh. He dearly wished he had heard it more often before it was silenced forever… And now Harry felt tears forming at the rims of his eyes.

"Who else is here," he asked. "Was that Sirius?"  
Dumbledore turned his head towards the origin of the sound, apparently waiting for someone else to answer.  
Oh, _Merlin_ , If that really was Sirius...

Harry couldn't decide if this was the best or the worst day of his life. It started pretty normal, he woke up in his bed at Grimmauld Place, then had breakfast while reading the Daily Prophet. He floo called Ron and Hermione, who were currently in Australia and visited George in the shop. He and Ginny went out on a lunch date. Harry then went to check on Teddy and play with him, giving Andromeda some time to rest. He was looking forward to a quiet night at home, but just as he entered the house and greeted Kreacher, he suddenly felt extremely weak and passed out.  
Waking up and seeing Dumbledore, his first thought was that he died again. He quickly dismissed that idea, and several others, but for the life of him, he couldn't think of any logical way a living Albus Dumbledore could be standing in front of him, unless he time-travelled several years to the past. At this point in his life, he couldn't even be surprised if that really was the case. 'Shit like this happens to me all the time,' he thought. The explanation about parallel universes made sense and was confirmed when he checked the Prophet - same date as the one he had read that morning, but the stories were different.

But hearing the sound of Sirius' laugh quickly shattered his calm demeanour.  
"What gave me away?"  
Oh. My. God. It was. It was Sirius. Definitely the best day of his life then. Harry was jittery with excitement. He was going to see his godfather again! Well, some parallel version of him, but it was still Sirius! Alive!  
"Padfoot, I could recognise your laugh anywhere. Now come here, you twat."

Sirius hesitantly stepped into the room, his grey eyes surveying Harry curiously. He then smiled and Harry jumped on his feet, unconsciously opening his arms. Sirius' eyes lit up and they quickly closed the distance between them and hugged. If Harry could become an Animagus right then and there, he was sure he would turn into a koala in order to be able to cling to Sirius as long as possible. Sirius laughed again and Harry laughed with him, because how could you not when Sirius' laughter was the most beautiful, infectious sound to ever exist.

He thought it was probably bizarre that he was essentially hugging a person he only just met. But this only made him think of that time when Sirius hesitantly asked him if Harry would like to live with him and how Harry enthusiastically accepted, only minutes after finding out that Sirius was actually not a murderer. This made him simultaneously happy and sad, because thinking about his godfather was still painful, but this felt like a second chance.

Sirius then turned into a dog and jumped on Harry, who fell over. He laughed and tried to stop Sirius from licking him. "Padfoot! Stop that! It's disgusting! You know you are actually not a dog, right?"

Dumbledore was laughing at them, but Harry heard another noise coming from the room Sirius came out of. He assumed it was the Order members and consequently asked, "Are these the Order headquarters then?"

Sirius turned back into his human form, still sitting on a floor next to Harry, while Dumbledore answered, "Order of the Phoenix? It was dissolved as we didn't need it anymore."

"That's good, actually," Harry replied. "You couldn't all fit here anyways."

Sirius and Dumbledore exchanged looks and Dumbledore said, "I'd love to hear more about your universe Harry, but I'm afraid I have some unfinished business back at Hogwarts. I think you'll be here for a couple of days, at least, or more, depending on how long it takes us to find a way to send you back, so we can meet again. I only advise you not to go out in public without some sort of glamour, I don't want to imagine what sort of publicity a dimension traveller might get."

Harry shuddered at the thought - "Don't worry, Headmaster, I do have some experience in avoiding the likes of Rita Skeeter." Dumbledore smiled, nodded and went away via floo network.

Harry looked at Sirius again, "So, is this your place?"

"No, actually, but I do live nearby. I can of course stay here…" he trailed off, frowning in the direction of what Harry assumed was the kitchen. "Where do _you_ live, anyway?"

"At Grimmauld Place."

Sirius looked shocked. "Really? Voluntarily? _But why?_ "

Harry laughed, "It's not so bad anymore. We cleaned it, threw away all of the cursed stuff, did some major redecorating… It's all bright colours now and the sitting room looks very much like the Gryffindor common room – you'd love it. Of course, your mother's portrait wouldn't cooperate so we just covered it with a bookcase. Kreacher protested a little bit at that, but he likes me now much more than he did before and I said he can visit her, as long as there is no one else in the house when he does."

"Kreacher likes you? He doesn't like anyone!"

"Oh, trust me, I hated him, he hated me. Ron once said that he used to dream of chopping off his head, but he loves him now. Kreacher even likes Hermione and she's a muggleborn."

"A parallel universe where Kreacher is nice," Sirius said dreamily. "Do you have a three day weekend as well?"

"You know, if I wake up tomorrow morning and find out this is all just a dream and we wasted it on talking about Grimmauld Place, I'll be quite disappointed. We could be doing better things."

"Like what?"

"Eating is good. I'm starving. Also, if this is my dream, then I'm already doing most of the work - you can do the talking."

Sirius laughed and said, "Certainly! Finally, I found someone who will appreciate my storytelling. I am very good at it," he flung his hair in and winked at Harry playfully.

"You are good at everything," Harry said softly and Sirius seemed surprised to hear him say it. Harry, having already lost his godfather, often regretted not telling him enough how much he loved him while he was alive, and he was not going to make the same mistake again. Even though he heard a lot of people saying how powerful and clever his godfather was, he never heard someone saying something nice about Sirius in front of the man himself. It was probably due to the over-confident manner that Sirius had around him, but Harry knew better. He had his own self-esteem issues due to growing up with the Dursleys and he knew Sirius hadn't heard any kind things from his family either, and had spent most of his life trying to prove to everyone that he wasn't an evil person.

Sirius cleared his throat and yelled, "Did you guys drown in the tea?"

Harry turned his head to look at the door that lead to the kitchen, wondering who was there.

"Nope, we are fine," the kind voice of Remus Lupin was heard.

Harry smiled. Dumbledore, Sirius and now Remus, all alive. It was so good to see all of them again. However, his smile froze when he saw the last person that entered the room. Standing there, staring at him was James Potter.


	4. Chapter 4

He couldn't stop staring. Never had the thought that his father could be alive even cross his mind. He looked behind Remus and his d... and James, wondering if he was going to see a woman with red hair but doubting it. What did Dumbledore say... Voldemort tried to kill him but failed? His mother must have sacrificed herself here as well.

He looked at James again. James Potter, his dad. Standing there. Alive. Palpable. Not a reflection, not a memory. Harry remembered being eleven and sneaking out every night to look at his parents in the Mirror of Erised, thinking of them as grownups. But ever since the death of Fred Weasley, who was approximately the same age as his parents when they died, Harry started comprehending how _young_ they actually were. Unlike Sirius and Remus, who both looked younger than they did in Harry's universe, James looked older. His hair was still jet black, no traces of white in it, but he had a few lines on his forehead, probably from squinting - Harry suspected he will get them too, unless he somehow managed to correct his eyesight. The man standing in front of him now was in his late thirties and Harry didn't know him at all but he loved him anyway.

Harry was very much looking forward to getting to know James. He only knew things about his dad that he found out from Sirius, Remus and Snape. Although, in this situation, James had it worse, because his son had probably died before he had a chance to develop a personality. He didn't know how old his counterpart was when he died, but when a 116 year old person tells you something happened many years ago, you get the gist. Harry wondered if it would be too painful for James if he called him "dad"… Although calling him by his first name sounded disrespectful and calling him "sir" would be just plain weird. A Manual of Etiquette for Alternative Dimensions would definitely come in handy now.

"You look..." Remus started saying something but faltered.  
Harry, realising that the four of them have been standing here for a while in complete silence, had the need to break it. He smiled at Remus and said, "Can I get a Sickle if I can guess correctly what you were going to say?"  
Remus cocked his head to the side, "I'm afraid I don't have any money on me right now. But," he added with a smile, "I do have a chocolate frog."  
Harry waved his hand dismissively, "Even better." He raised an eyebrow in challenge. "I look like dad, but I have mum's eyes?"  
Remus sighed, "Heard that before, haven't you," he said while reaching into his pocket and grabbing a chocolate frog. He tossed it at Harry, who caught it with ease.  
"Only every time I meet someone who knew my parents," he said, rolling his eyes.  
"Knew," Sirius repeated.  
Harry inwardly cursed. "They died when I was a baby." Okay, time to rip off the bandaid. "All of you died in my universe."  
The three Marauders kept staring at him, looking shocked and he wanted to make them feel better. "Dumbledore, too," he added. Okay, why did he think this was going to make them feel better? He sighed in frustration and took a bite of his chocolate frog. Sirius apparently found this very funny, as he started laughing.

"So far, we have established that Padfoot laughs at the most inopportune times and that I am rubbish at cheering people up." Harry shook his head, "That's why I need Ron around."  
"You mention them a lot," Remus pointed out, "Ron and Hermione."  
Harry smiled, "Yeah, they are great."

He glanced at his father again, and noticed that the man hasn't said anything yet. In order to avoid another awkward silence, Harry started rambling.

"Ron is like a brother to me. Has been since the day we met. He is brilliant. Very funny and has a knack for breaking the tension. When we were thirteen he stood in front of me and said, "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too." He proved that he meant it, time and time again. You could lock him in a room with Voldemort himself, as long as Voldemort was unarmed, and after a week or so the infamous Dark Lord would come out wearing a Weasley jumper and following Ron around like a lost puppy. It's a Weasley superpower."

"Hermione is incredibly smart. She is like a walking encyclopedia. She has very firm beliefs on what is right and what is wrong. It doesn't matter if she has to break all the rules and laws and make great sacrifices, she will not hesitate to do it if it means that an innocent life will be saved or an abused house elf will be freed. She came up with an idea to form a secret society, or more like a rebellion group, that will fight against the Ministry and its corruption."

"You as a group certainly have some revolutionary ideas," Remus said, sounding highly amused, "I must say, I'm surprised no one ever thought of turning Voldemort into a Weasley before."  
Even James smiled at that.  
"So is this Hermione bird, by any chance, your girlfriend," Sirius asked cheekily.  
Harry made a horrified expression. "No! No! Absolutely not! We've always been like siblings. Most importantly, Ron and Hermione are dating, and thank Merlin for that, there is much less bickering since the kissing started."  
Sirius snorted at that. "We know quite a lot about Ron and Hermione now and still almost nothing about you."  
Harry wondered what should he tell them. He had no idea how to talk about himself and he definitely didn't want to bring Voldemort into the story. He decided to try and think of his first year at Hogwarts for inspiration.  
"Let's see... I was sorted into Gryffindor, but the Hat considered putting me into Sliytherin. I pretty much begged not to go there. I am good friends with Hagrid. I had a beautiful snowy owl, her name was Hedwig. When something catches my interest, I can't let it go until I have it all figured out. I play Quidditch."  
"What position?" asked James, his voice sounding raspy.  
Harry looked at him, startled. It was the first thing he said since they've met. He could count the number of times he heard his voice on one hand. Realising that they were waiting for an answer Harry blushed and said, "Speaker, er, I mean, Seeker. Yeah." He blushed even further and looking at the floor, added, "Youngest Seeker in the century."  
"Congratulations! Is there a cool backstory?" Sirius asked, who was still sitting on the floor next to Harry.  
"Yeah, it is kind of cool. Do you guys know who Neville Longbottom is," he asked.  
They all nodded.  
"Well, he got a Remembrall from his grandma. We had our first flying lesson that day..."

While Harry was explaining the incident, he kept reminding himself to look back and forth between all of them and not stare at James for too long.

"... and then I realised I was worrying too much. I thought: 'I am not going to be expelled, she's just going to beat me with a stick!' Then, the stick turned out to be an older boy named Oliver Wood, who was a team captain and McGonagall just informs him that she had found a new Seeker."  
The Marauders started laughing at that and Harry gave up all pretence and just stared at his dad.

Remus noticed this and said, "Well, Harry, It was nice meeting you, but I have to go home and try to find out how you ended up here. I also have work tomorrow, but I will come to see you in the afternoon."

"Where do you work," Harry asked curiously.

"I am an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries."

Harry grimaced, "Ugh, I hate that place."

"Why," Remus asked, "Did I work there in your dimension?"

"I'll tell you another time and no, you didn't. You were the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we had," he replied, making Remus blush a little bit.

"You see Moony!" Sirius leaned towards Harry saying, "When we had the career advice session with McGonagall, I tried to convince him that he will end up teaching. I was right!"

"Another universe doesn't count, Padfoot."

"Meh, tomato, tomahto."

"Anyway, I have to go now. So do you, Pads, we have work tomorrow."

"What does that have to do with anything?! I can sleep here!"

"No, you can't, there is not enough space for three of you," Remus said, exasperatedly.

"What are you talking about? We always…"

"Sirius," Remus hissed.

Harry thought he knew what Remus was trying to accomplish and he honestly didn't know what to think. He was much more comfortable with Sirius around and he was afraid that if he was left alone with James, they wouldn't know how to talk to each other.

James seemed to share his opinion because he jumped into the discussion by saying, "He can stay."

The three Marauders were trying to carry a silent conversation, so Harry stood up and asked, "Um, can I use the loo?"

James nodded and pointed out a door, "Through there, second door on the left."

Harry scurried away. He waited until the sound of a discussion died down before he came back.

Sirius turned to him and said, "Harry, I'll go now and I'll be working tomorrow, but I'm definitely asking for the next seven days off, so don't worry, you'll see me around a lot. "

He gave Harry a big hug that both were reluctant to let go of, then said a quick "Bye, Prongs!" before following Remus and stepping into the fireplace.

James turned to look at Harry, then opened his mouth, searching for words, before settling on, "You mentioned being hungry. I'm afraid that I don't have anything ready, but I can go and buy something now."

"Do you have any eggs, or bread and cheese," Harry asked and James nodded in affirmative. "That will do, unless you want something else?"

"No, that is fine," James replied, heading toward the kitchen with Harry following him.


	5. Chapter 5

James was debating whether he should use magic to make omelettes. If he did it the Muggle way, he would have something to keep his hands busy with and that seemed like a better idea in this situation. While reaching for a frying pan he noticed his hand was still shaking. Oh, Merlin, imagine if he drops or spills something. How pathetic would that make him look in front of Harry? Okay, magic it is.

He glanced at Harry and saw him sitting at the table and looking back at him, but he had the faraway look in his eyes, like he was thinking of something else. James' heart ached at seeing that. Not only were his eyes the exact shape and colour that Lily's were, but she used to have that same look when she was daydreaming. He turned away and started taking out plates and cutlery, trying to will away the tears threatening to spill. Once again he became aware of how much he was afraid that he won't leave a good impression on his son. He was very self-conscious and a little bit envious of Sirius. He only spent fifteen minutes with Harry, and yet they were joking and hugging like two old friends that haven't seen each other in a while. Harry, too, was easygoing and conversed normally with Dumbledore and Remus, making cheeky remarks even though he claimed that all of them have died in his universe. James felt like an outsider, too shocked to be able to say anything. Finally setting down the supper on the table, he pulled Harry out of his reverie.

"Thanks," Harry smiled at him.

"No problem."

"So, where did you find me?"

"Pardon?"

"Have I just dropped out of the sky and landed in your apartment?"

"Oh, that. Well, it was my fault, actually," James replied somewhat embarrassed and explained what happened in the Department of Mysteries.

"How did Dumbledore end up being the one to question me," Harry asked, puzzled.

"Moony thought that you were actually myself, pulled forward in time. We wanted to spare you the shock of seeing everyone years older, but as you woke up and saw a presumably dead person I don't think we quite managed it," he said with a chuckle. "I knew you weren't me from the moment you spoke, I would've reacted differently, but I didn't expect you to look so much… He was very little…" James swallowed the lump in his throat. His Harry was only a year old when he was murdered and James kept thinking of him as a baby, he never imagined that they would have looked so much alike that people would confuse them. Apart from the eyes, which were the obvious difference, Harry had a somewhat paler complexion, he was skinnier and slightly shorter, his teeth were different and he had a longer fringe that covered his forehead.

Just then, Harry brushed it aside, revealing a lightning bolt shaped scar and James heard himself gasp.

"Did it happen on Halloween here as well," Harry asked softly.

James nodded.

"Can you… Can you tell me what happened?"

Drawing a shuddering breath and looking out of the window, he started recollecting the worst days of his life.

"We were in hiding for a while and I guess we got lulled into a false sense of security. When Voldemort showed up, we didn't even have our wands within reach. I told Lily to go, hoping that I would be able to withhold Voldemort long enough for them to escape. He did torture me for a while, repeatedly putting me under the Cruciatus and finishing with blood-draining curse that was meant to slowly kill me. I passed out and when I woke up, I – well, I wished I didn't, because I found myself living my worst nightmare. I was in St Mungo's and the healers told me that I had been comatose for a month. I immediately asked after Lily and Harry but I was told they were dead. A bunch of people showed up then, Order members, mostly, but I ignored them all. I wished I was dead, I didn't understand why did I get to survive when they hadn't... Remus came again the next morning and he told me what happened. Lily was killed on Halloween, but Harry had survived the killing curse and Voldemort vanished. Harry was placed in the Pediatric Ward so that both of us would be there together, but after two weeks a group of Death Eaters, polyjuiced to look like healers, came in search of revenge. One of them, Bartemius Crouch Junior managed to kill Harry but was caught in the act and he was given the Dementor's Kiss that same day."

"Wait, they did that without a trial? Was his father the one to sentence him?" Harry interrupted, sounding alarmed.

"No, It was an Auror who hadn't recognised him, thinking that a Death Eater who killed the Boy-who-lived deserved such a fate. I am not saying that he was wrong, but I am biased in this case and he was sacked for acting without orders. The rest of the Death Eaters were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban after admitting their war crimes on their trial. Moony, who was telling me all of this, also told me not to worry - Sirius was in Azkaban as well. You can imagine my reaction to hearing that. Despite my age, I had an incredible burst of accidental magic where everything around me started exploding. I put everyone in a frenzy, yelling at them to free Sirius immediately and when Aurors showed up I called them all a bunch of idiots. They might have believed me about him not being the Secret Keeper, but they argued that he killed Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles in front of eyewitnesses and that he still deserved to be imprisoned. I started threatening to kill _them_ in front of eyewitnesses if they don't do as I say. Thankfully, Dumbledore arrived just then and asked to speak to me privately. I told him about the switch and he confessed that Sirius didn't actually get a trial and that he might still be proven innocent. We had to reveal our Animagus secret and get registered, but thankfully in the end Padfoot was free and they caught Pettigrew and sent him to Azkaban, making sure to put an Anti-Animagus ward around his cell. Ironically, _he_ did get a trial, but I did not attend it, I never wanted to see that bastard again. For a while after that, I stayed with Sirius in his flat, barely ever getting out, neither of us working… Remus came every now and then, but It was awkward at first, because he felt guilty for not attempting to talk to Padfoot and find out the truth while I was unconscious and we felt guilty for not telling him about the switch. All of us were depressed for a long time. It got better, eventually. We helped one another get better, Sirius and I joined the Auror office and Remus got an apprenticeship with Unspeakables. I bought this apartment and moved in, but I still stay with Sirius or Remus every now and then, especially on the nights of the full moon."

Harry was listening to his account of events attentively and his questions after hearing it were odd and seemingly random.

"Are Frank and Alice Longbottom okay?"

"Yes, why wouldn't they be?"

"Was the Triwizard Tournament held at Hogwarts a few years ago?"

"It was. The same year as the Quidditch World Cup."

"Did the Dark Mark appear at the World Cup?"

"It had not, though there was a Death Eater riot."

"And Bertha Jorkins? Is she alive?"

"I pass by her sometimes in the Ministry," James replied, wondering how on Earth is Bertha Jorkins connected to anything.

"How many Champions competed in the Tournament?"

"Three, that's the whole point. It's in the name."

"Did anyone die during the Tournament?"

"No, thank Merlin."

"Who won?"

"A girl from Beauxbatons, but I don't remember her name."

"Fleur Delacour?"

"Yeah, that was it."

"Hmm…" Harry fell silent at that and James dearly wanted to know what all these questions were about.

"You know," Harry said, "because you survived that night, a lot of lives were saved."

Well, whatever James expected to hear, this wasn't it. "Yours wasn't," he stressed.

"I know. But still. Because Barty Crouch Jr. was kissed and Pettigrew caught, hundreds of lives were saved. More importantly, by bringing me here, even though it was accidental, you are going to save even more. Well, except for one. But I don't think you'll be sad to see Voldemort go."

James gaped at Harry, who either did not notice his reaction or was used to it.

"Can I use your shower and borrow some clothes? I am really tired and there's quite a lot we need to talk about tomorrow."

"Of course, I'll go find something. I have work tomorrow as well, but like Sirius, I will ask for a free week after that. We should be here around five. Is that okay with you? You can go out, just do what Dumbledore said and disguise yourself."

"That's wonderful. Thank you so much," Harry said with a smile.

That night James barely got a wisp of sleep. He tossed and turned, going over everything that he knew about Harry and all of the things that he wanted to find out. Harry's voice was etched in his mind, repeatedly saying, "Did it happen on Halloween here as well? I don't think you'll be sad to see Voldemort go. All of you died in my universe. Dumbledore, too - You know, because you survived that night, a lot of lives were saved..."


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Harry woke up wondering where he was. After putting on his glasses and recognising the guest room, he gave a startled laugh. 'It was real!' Somehow, waking up and thinking, 'I met my dad yesterday' was more surreal than being told by Dumbledore that he was in a parallel universe. He shot out of bed, feeling very optimistic. James had already left, leaving a note on the kitchen table. Harry carefully placed it in his mokeskin pouch next to the Marauder's Map and some pictures and letters he carried with him. It was the first thing written in his father's handwriting that was ever addressed to him and no matter how inconsequential it seemed, he wanted to save it.

He made himself a cup of coffee, and ate some toast while skimming through today's Prophet. He was disappointed, but not really surprised to find that Fudge was still the Minister. Other than that, no important information could be found, as this world seemed to be living in peace.

He spent the following half an hour carefully placing glamour charms on himself, all the while wondering where do some girls get the patience to use makeup every day. He concealed his scar and gave himself dark skin and brown eyes. While in his own universe some people would still be able to recognise him, he was sure that here no one here would even think he was related to Potters - his hair seemed less noticeable with his new skin colour.

He floo-ed to the Leaky Cauldron and almost greeted Tom, but caught himself in time. No one spared him a second glance and Harry, whose popularity in his native universe was now higher than ever, enjoyed every second of his newfound freedom. He was thrilled to see Florean Fortescue alive and well at his Ice Cream Parlour and he went in to buy a cone and chat with him for a bit. However, his mood was dampened when he couldn't find Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes anywhere.

Finally, deciding that he needed a set of robes, he entered Madam Malkin's. Even back at home he only had his Hogwarts uniform and the dress robes he wore to the Yule ball. He didn't want to keep borrowing clothes from James, which he found slightly ironic because he was planning to spend money that his parents left him to buy himself new ones.

"How can I help you, dear?" the seamstress asked with a polite smile.

"Hello! I am looking for a set of self-ironing robes in black."

While he was being fitted the bell rang, signalling that someone entered. Speaking of irony...

"Do I know you?" asked Draco Malfoy, scrutinising him.

"No, I don't believe we've met," answered Harry, failing to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Did you not go Hogwarts?" Malfoy demanded to know, but was interrupted by a seamstress. Harry was grateful for the time to come up with a convincing lie. Homeschooling seemed like the best way to explain both his accent and his absence from Hogwarts, but he couldn't come up with a good enough reason for passing on a chance to study in a magical school.

"I travelled a lot. I attended Durmstrang for two years, then Ilvermony, with some private tutoring in between. My parents are from England, though."

"Huh." Malfoy looked him over with interest once again. "My father considered sending me to Durmstrang, but my mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. My father knows the headmaster, actually."

"Karkaroff? I don't like him. He used to be a Death Eater, you know." Harry couldn't help himself. He loved taking the Mickey out of Malfoy – and he hasn't done it in a long time.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, he saw Malfoy twice and both times he was uncharacteristically subdued. On his trial, where Harry witnessed in his and Narcissa's defence, Draco looked scared, tired and once he found out that he wasn't going to Azkaban after all - disbelieving. Harry didn't attend Lucius' trial – he didn't have anything to say in his defence and he knew plenty of people who would gladly bring charges against him. Harry did; however, return Draco's wand to him after his trial, not wanting to risk giving it to him beforehand, just for it to be snapped a few hours later. 'I thought that I was not worthy enough of yielding a wand that the Saviour himself used,' Malfoy drawled, attempting to hide that he was grateful with a snide remark. Harry felt pity for him, but was not going to pass on the opportunity of irritating a Draco Malfoy of another universe.

"Are you one of those Muggle-lovers then? I know you can't be a Muggleborn if you've attended Durmstrang."

"I don't plan to discuss my views on blood-purity with strangers," Harry replied coldly.

"For your information, I am the Malfoy heir," said Draco indignantly.

"Okay then, the Malfoy heir, you should have access to one of those Nature's Nobility books. Look up the House of Gaunt – they are the direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Marvolo Gaunt's daughter secretly married a Muggle named Tom Riddle – she used a love potion and didn't tell him she was a witch. He abandoned her and she died at a Muggle orphanage, after giving birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle. If you rearrange the letters of his name you get an anagram – I am Lord Voldemort."

He wasn't surprised to hear horrified gasps and he noticed that the girl who was adjusting the length of his robes looked very pale. He let that information sink in for a moment before adding in a carefree tone, "So the point of my story is that Voldemort is a liar and a hypocrite and the Death Eaters were his stupid little minions. Judging by your reaction, they don't teach you that at Hogwarts, do they? So the fact that I dislike Death Eaters and hate Voldemort has little to do with the "Muggle-loving" as you've called it," Harry drew quotation marks in the air and grinned at Malfoy, who was looking at him strangely.

"Your robes are ready, my dear," Madam Malkin said and Harry thanked her and paid for them. While exiting the shop he waved and said "Bye-bye the Malfoy heir!" in a singsong tone.

He wasn't sure why he'd done that. Malfoy probably wouldn't believe him and even if he did, his attitude towards Muggleborns wouldn't change. His view of Voldemort might, but that won't change anything since Harry planned on informing Dumbledore on how to destroy Horcruxes before Voldemort attempted to resurrect himself. He didn't want to actually participate in the destruction of this world's Voldemort, as he felt that the one he had already dealt with was more than enough – he was just going to share his knowledge and try to prevent the war from happening. If he did anything more he would be entering the dangerous territory that Hermione called his _saving people thing_.

Harry kept reminding himself that this wasn't his universe and that he can help without putting himself in danger. He imagined himself jumping from universe to universe, trying to free every Sirius Black who was still in Azkaban. Maybe, if he was lucky, he would find a universe where Sirius was alive, but both Harry _and_ James died. Harry would then try to convince that Sirius to come with him to his own universe, where his name was cleared and there was no Voldemort… No, no, NO! This was exactly why it was dangerous to mix the thoughts of parallel universes and people that needed saving – It was giving Harry all sorts of crazy ideas.

He decided to visit Flourish and Blotts and ask for books with spells that were invented in the past twenty years – now that was something he could do in a parallel universe that was not dangerous. That spell that Dumbledore used on him would come in very handy when he goes back to his Auror training. If Hermione could see him now, she would have been proud.


	7. Chapter 7

Remus hasn't been this excited about his work in years. He was making a major breakthrough in the science of dimension travel and the whole thing practically fell in his lap! He figured out which combination of runes was responsible for bringing Harry here - he just had to figure out which factor did James play in this equation. Was it his blood, his soul or his magical core that summoned Harry? Once he figured that out, he would be able to find a way of sending Harry back.

The excitement about the whole ordeal suppressed the shock of meeting a grown-up Harry Potter. However, he was worried about James. Not many people, if anyone at all, could intimidate James Potter, and yet yesterday Remus could practically smell his fear. He was wondering what long-term effect will Harry's presence have on his friend. It might bring back the feeling of grief, but Remus was hoping that it will bring peace instead. He was looking forward to getting to know Harry and finding out what their relationship was like in this other world. He assumed Harry grew up with Sirius - he did say that he lives at Grimmauld - so the other Remus should have been around a lot.

The whole day he kept glancing at the clock, wishing for it to be five already. It was a Saturday, which meant that he had a day off tomorrow. That was a good thing because he was already putting off his work on constellations because of the research on parallel universes. He couldn't suddenly ask his boss to be transferred to that area of research, because he didn't want to explain what happened yesterday - he might get James in trouble and they would take Harry in for questioning or worse, the experiments. It didn't help the matters that he was _the_ Harry Potter as the Unspeakables would want to find out how does one survive a killing curse. If they got their hands on him, the Marauders might never see him again.

* * *

Upon entering James' home, they were assaulted with the smell of food. Curious, they followed it and found Harry cooking.

"Hi guys! You are here, finally. I was bored - as you can see."

"So you decided to cook?" said Sirius while peering over Harry's shoulder to look at the food.

"I needed something to do. I went to Diagon Alley this morning and did some shopping. Then I found some old issues of the Prophet to look through, hoping against hope to learn something significant about this timeline. Most of the news were about Celestina Warbeck or some other rubbish," he explained while placing roasted beef and potatoes on the table. "When I came here, I ate all of the caramel cobwebs that were on the table. I realised there was no other food in the house, so I went out for groceries."

"When did you learn to cook?" asked James and Remus wondered the same. He couldn't picture Sirius, who didn't even know how to use a microwave, teaching Harry to prepare a roast.

"I did it all the time before I went to Hogwarts. Sometimes I did it over the summer as well - I liked it much more than the cleaning anyway."

"Who the heck did you grow up with?" asked Sirius.

"The Dursleys."

"Who?" Remus asked, perplexed.

"Aunt Petunia. Mum's sister. Married and has a son my age."

"Why not with Sirius?" As soon as Remus said the words he knew that he shouldn't have spoken without thinking. Harry dropped the plate he was holding and it shattered on the floor. He crouched to pick it up, only remembering to use a Reparo after he already picked up several pieces, which Remus realised was the result of a Muggle upbringing.

"Blood wards. I mean - there were blood wards around the Dursley's house that prevented Voldemort or the Death Eaters from reaching me until I turned seventeen. It was the same with that killing curse. I had to stay with someone related to mum for it to work. No one was happy with that arrangement, I promise you. But it worked," Harry's voice was quivering the whole time and he avoided looking any of them in the eye. Remus was speechless. It did explain how this Harry survived while theirs didn't - even though James was in the same building, he wasn't actually related to Lily so Harry didn't have the same protection. It was a horrible thought and Remus gave James' shoulder a squeeze, hoping that he wasn't going to blame himself.

"I haven't actually cooked anything in years. Kreacher does it for me or I go to the Burrow - that's where the Weasleys live - for dinner. This might be tasteless, after all."

"Nah, it looks fantastic to me," said Sirius cheerfully as he sat down at the table. Harry smiled at him and turned away again. Only then did Sirius' expression change to one of concern and Remus realised that Harry avoided mentioning Sirius in his explanation. They still didn't know when did he die in Harry's universe and Remus felt like a prat for bringing him up when the boy seemed high-strung about the issue.

"I forgot to ask, how is Tonks," Harry directed his question at Remus, who looked at him oddly, trying to remember where does he recognise that name from.

"Ted? He was fine, the last time I saw him," Sirius replied.

"I'm glad, but I meant You-know-who," said Harry pointedly, again looking at Remus.

"Voldemort?" Remus asked, feeling out of the loop. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out who was Harry referring to. James and Sirius did, apparently, because they almost choked on their food from laughing.

"I have to find Dora," said Sirius through his tears, "and tell her you called her You-know-who!"

"Well, you would too if she threatened to rip your tongue out if you called her by her first name."

Finally, Remus remembered Sirius' metamorphmagus cousin who was also an Auror.

"I'd love to see her while I'm here," said Harry fondly. "I miss her."

"Did she…" James trailed off, but Harry understood the question. "Yeah, she died a couple of months ago."

"Bloody hell," Sirius shook his head sadly, "yeah, we can ask her out for drinks one of these days. Maybe tomorrow, it's Sunday, she should be free."

"Wait! Is she not? I mean, are you not…" Harry looked at Remus again. Remus gave him a confused look and Harry laughed.

"Merlin, I am so stupid! Parallel universe, no Order! I assumed it would be the same here. Oh, well – we'll see tomorrow."

"Care to explain," James asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just give me a moment. I need to get something. " Harry left the kitchen and the three of them resumed eating. He came back with his mokeskin pouch, pulling out some pictures from within. He scanned them quickly and chose one, exclaiming, "I took this one two days ago! It's perfect. Look everyone, this is Teddy Lupin."

Remus' mind seemed unable to process this information. He stared as Sirius' snatched the photo from Harry's hand and studied it, grinning like mad. He and James started saying something at the same time, but Remus couldn't understand a word of their yelling. James handed him the photo that showed a smiling baby with green hair. Suddenly, the boy in the picture sneezed and his hair abruptly turned light brown - the same shade as his own. Just as that thought crossed his mind, the implication of the name Teddy _Lupin_ and Harry's questions about Sirius' cousin finally settled in. He looked at Harry, disbelieving, waiting for him to proclaim that this was all a joke. Harry did not do that, instead he just smiled fondly and started showing them other pictures of the baby which he claimed was his son.

"He's going to be four months old soon. He is _so_ adorable. He turns his hair black when he wants me to hold him. One time, he even changed his eye colour to green to match me. I confess, that creeped me out a little bit."

"That's impossible!" Remus said, his voice coming out very high-pitched.

"He's a metamorphmagus, It's fairly easy for him," Harry replied with a shrug.

"No! I meant, I would never risk having a kid, how could I, he might…"

Harry interrupted him, "Relax! He doesn't have lycanthropy, it's not hereditary."

James, for the first time relaxed in Harry's company, gleefully exclaimed, "Moony! All those rubbish excuses you came up with for not going on dates just fell through. "

"Yeah, mate, don't worry. We'll start working on it immediately. I can't wait to see Dora, It never even occurred to me to introduce the two of you," Sirius added.

"You will not be working on anything! Padfoot, do you hear yourself? Your cousin is a kid!"

"She's twenty-five, Moony, she's not a kid. I went out with several girls younger than her. Besides, even you - albeit from a parallel universe –agree with me!"

"I told you already Padfoot, another universe doesn't count!"

"Oh, it sure does! I've heard all of this already," said Harry, "here comes the self-deprecating rant of Remus John Lupin: I am so old and so boring and sometimes I have fur and there are loads of men out there who are richer and better looking than me – she should go out with them! I'll just stay here and live with my Grindylows!" He covered his eyes with one hand, throwing back the other hand to emphasise his point.

"You are losing this argument, no one agrees with you," Harry finished with a smug smile.

"Damn right!" Sirius and Harry gave each other a high-five. Remus could only sigh in resignation. Suddenly, getting to know Harry seemed much less appealing than it did this morning. Only, seeing James laughing at Harry's antics made everything worth-it. He hesitantly reached for the rest of the pictures of Teddy and started examining them.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Harry is **not** going to be paired up with anyone – I mentioned in chapter 3 that he and Ginny are going out in the Canon Universe – pairing him up with her or anyone else in AU would be cheating and Harry is just not the type. Anything else you'd like to see, feel free to mention it in the reviews.

"Hey there," Sirius nudged Harry and passed him a butterbeer. James and Remus were sitting on the other side of the room, discussing the science behind dimensional travel.

"How was work," Harry asked, shifting on the couch to make more room for Sirius.

"Today was rather boring. Although, there are a number of obliviated people that might all be connected – that could turn out to be interesting, but we are still in an early phase, just gathering clues and interviewing the victims."

"I am actually in Auror training right now, you know."

"That's fantastic!" he clapped Harry on the back and then pulled him in a one-armed hug. "So what's the story? What made you want to do it?"

"I was in my fourth year when Moody was teaching Defence. It was my strongest subject and he told me I would make a good Auror. The idea stuck and I honestly can't think of anything else I'd like to do. Ironically, it later turned out that it wasn't Moody teaching us, but rather Barty Crouch Jr. who kept the real Mad-Eye locked in his trunk while he constantly drank polyjuice."

"Barty Crouch! He was the one who -"

"Yeah, I've heard. That's where the ironic part comes from. I accepted career advice from a Death Eater who was out to kill me. I'm used to it though, almost all of my Defence professors tried to harm me in some way, Crouch at least knew how to teach."

"You are quite blasé about it," Sirius remarked.

"It's an occupational hazard of being Harry Potter," Harry said with a shrug, his lips curving into a half-smirk.

"Merlin and Morgana, you are using your name as a brand. You are behaving like Prongs-"

Harry spat the butterbeer and promptly started coughing. "You know," he said after he started breathing properly, "there is only one other person who told me that."

"Yesterday you said that everyone tells you that."

"That I look like him - yes. That I behave like him - only you and Snape."

"What," Sirius jumped as if burnt, "I take back what I said! I am not agreeing with that git!"

Harry shook his head, "Nope. Not getting out of that one. Your counterpart said the same. But to be honest, you and Snape mean very different things by that remark."

"I'll drink to that," Sirius did so and tried to remember what they were talking about… Ah, yes. Barty Crouch. "I can't believe anyone could capture Moody of all people… How long did he pretend? "

"Almost the entire school year. On the night of the Third Task of the Triwizard we found out. He kept drinking from that flask and no one questioned it. Mad-Eye's paranoia had gotten the better of him," Harry sighed, "Barty got kissed that night over there as well – Fudge, the idiot, felt his safety threatened and completely bypassed the trial and everything. That's the reason people kept ignoring the fact that Voldemort was back for a long time."

Sirius felt a chill go up his spine. _Voldemort was back_? But it all made sense. He heard Harry talking about the Order yesterday. James told him that morning how Harry thought that his survival saved a lot of lives. Hell, everyone they ever mentioned Harry proclaimed dead in his universe. It made much more sense if Voldemort was involved.

Harry was swirling the drink in his hand and absent-mindedly voiced, "Do you think it's some sort of destiny? I mean, things were different in your universe and mine – and yet Crouch met the same fate. The other Death Eaters – were they the Lestranges? - didn't even torture the Longbottoms to insanity and yet they ended up in Azkaban. I'm sure they deserved it – they must have killed and tortured hundreds of people before the Longbottoms. I wonder if Neville's personality is different due to growing up with his parents. Hmm… No, the destiny bit doesn't make sense. It doesn't explain how a lot of innocent people suffered in my universe and not here. I guess this is some sort of best case scenario."

" _Harry._ " Sirius croaked, "We lost _you_. And Lily. How is that best case scenario?"

Harry turned and looked him in the eye. "There's no use in pitying the dead, Padfoot. Pity the living. I am not so arrogant to think that my life is worth more than someone else's. If it was James' life or mine, I'm glad it was his because that in turn saved some lives, some sanities… It saved you."

That last bit was barely a whisper and it made Sirius' heart beat wildly. _There it is_. The truth he was both eager and afraid to hear. He was aware that Harry has so far avoided talking about what happened to the other Sirius and he didn't want to pressure him into explaining it. But he knew that once the truth was out, Harry would be less careful with his words around them and everyone would stop tiptoeing around the issue.

He took Harry's hand and squeezed it. "You can tell me," he whispered back.

Harry took a deep breath and leaned into Sirius. He avoided looking in his eyes, though, instead focusing on the butterbeer again. "He - he never got a trial."

Sirius' mind was whirling. He never got a trial. Of course, damn it, James wasn't there. But what did it mean? Did he die in Azkaban? How did Harry know he was innocent then? He must have gotten out at some point. But, how? Did they catch Pettigrew and free him without a trial? If so, _when_?

"How long?"

"Twelve years."

Sirius gasped. He could never forget the month he spent in Azkaban, no matter how much he tried to. It felt like a never-ending nightmare with recurring scenes. Reliving the worst moments of his childhood. The slap he received from his father the first time he came home from Hogwarts. Remus refusing to talk to him after the Snape incident. Seeing Order members who fought beside him dying again and again. Finding out that Regulus took the Dark Mark. Telling James they should switch Secret Keepers. Finding James on the verge of death. Lily dead. Harry crying. His fault. His fault. His fault.

That was a month. That was nothing. Somewhere in another world he stayed there for twelve years. His senses came back to him then and he realised he was clutching Harry and shaking violently. He also noticed the tense silence that enveloped the room. Fuck, Remus and James were probably listening now.

Harry's breathing was deep and even and Sirius could feel his chest rise and fall against him. He tried to synchronise their breathing until it helped him calm down. "What happened?" He didn't look up, not wanting to meet his friends' gazes.

"By July '93 he was so skinny that he could slip through his cell in his Animagus form." Harry's voice was soft and yet it carried clearly across the room. "The only known unaided escape if that's any comfort. Your name was in the papers constantly for three years."

Sirius chuckled. That _did_ make him feel better. Not about the fact that he spent more than a decade on a worst place on Earth. It was that he survived it, found Harry and convinced him of his innocence and they spent enough time together that Harry knew what to say to cheer him up. Not that it worked on everyone –

"Fucking hell," Remus said. James wordlessly nodded in agreement. Harry momentarily stiffened, probably only now remembering that they weren't alone. He detached himself from Sirius, gulped down his drink and said, "Do you want to hear the whole story?"

Remus and James looked at Sirius, leaving it to him to decide. He eagerly said yes.

Harry sprawled across the couch and closed his eyes, trying to recall the events accurately. "You've heard me talk about my best friend Ron. His dad; Arthur Weasley, won a Ministry Employee Prize. The picture of all nine of them was in the Prophet because of it and…"


	9. Chapter 9

"That was surreal," James said when Harry finished talking. "It sounds like a bedtime story, doesn't it? Time turners and Dementors... Sirius being friends with a cat."

"It sounds like a joke. An escaped convict, a werewolf and a cat walk into a bar - " Sirius threw in.

Remus snorted, "That's terrible. You just called the Shrieking Shack a bar."

" - walk into a haunted house," Sirius continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"And attempt to placate the children by rolling up their sleeves and saying there will be only one murder taking place," Harry said with an eye roll which made the Marauders laugh.

"We all knew about Sirius' drama queen tendencies - " James said, "But Moony surprised us all," Sirius finished in a manner that reminded Harry of Fred and George.

"You know what they say – It's always the quiet ones," Remus replied with a shrug and a smile.

"Or the nerdy ones! Look at that Hermione girl and the time travelling! No, scratch that, punching Malfoy was cooler. I wish I'd seen that."

Remus nodded, "Harry, your friends sound great, I'd really like you to introduce us."

"Sure thing, I'll arrange it as soon as possible. Would you like them to come to this universe or are you going to come to mine?" Harry said sarcastically.

"Pup, you forget that this universe already has a Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger of its own," Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, I was being silly. I'll invite them over for tea, shall I? There's just this minor inconvenience of them never having met me before."

"Ah, the witty comebacks are there too! Behold the Mini-Prongs!," Sirius said while ruffling Harry's hair, causing both Harry and James to blush.

"If you want to tell certain people who you really are Harry, that's fine, just as long as people from the Ministry and the Prophet don't find out. At the moment only the three of us and Dumbledore know, but judging by your friends' characters from the story, they could be trusted with your secret if you want to share it," Remus explained.

Harry pondered this for a moment and then nodded, "That sounds great, I'd like to see how everyone is faring here. Besides, I don't like lying and I am no good at it anyway."

Sirius snapped his fingers, "But don't forget that you know loads about everyone while they know nothing about you. You have so much pranking material there!"

"Good point," Harry said, thinking of his encounter with Malfoy earlier that day. He expected Remus to start scolding Sirius for encouraging him to play with people like that, but he said nothing. It got through Harry's head that he should stop thinking of Remus as a male version of Hermione, he was Mr Moony after all. That in turn reminded him that he forgot to mention the Map in his story. No matter, he'll tell them about it another time. When he was retelling the events of his third year, he was careful not to say anything too hurtful – mainly the rumours that were going around about Sirius at the time and the fact that Harry believed them. He also kept the form of his Patronus to himself, not being quite ready to share something so personal so soon. In order to lighten up the mood, he mentioned things like Hermione's punch, Remus' lessons, McGonagall's feud with Trelawaney and the Firebolt that Sirius sent him for Christmas. James asked for the account of his Quidditch matches and Harry, glad that they won the Cup that year, did his best to describe them in as much detail as possible. Of course, describing the confrontation in the Shack was the hardest not only for him, but for everyone listening as well. He almost had a heart attack earlier that day when Remus had asked him if he was raised by Sirius and telling him that - _No, he wasn't -_ because Sirius had been in Azkaban seemed like something he would never be able to do. Now that he explained everything he was glad - it felt like a huge weight was lifted off his chest.

A tapping on the window could be heard and James got up to let the owl in. "It's from Dumbledore," he said, "He's inviting us for lunch tomorrow at Hogwarts. Says he'd like us to stay for a couple of hours if we have time – Harry, that's practically a message to you to save your vocal chords for tomorrow. I guess you'll be repeating what you told us now."

"No way," Harry said, "You guys can tell him about it if you want, once was enough for me."

"Well from what I've heard earlier about your Defence professors I would think that you have other stories to share," Sirius returned.

Harry just gave a non committal "Mhm-hm" in response.

"I see Harry is already saving his vocal cords. Prongs, as far as I am concerned, you can tell Albus that we'll be there – I need to ask him for his opinion on some of the theories we've discussed earlier."

"Oh Prongs, can you pass me some parchment and your quill and ink once you've finished," Sirius added, "I need to write to Dora and see how's she doing. I'll invite her for drinks or maybe even dinner tomorrow."

"Padfoot, please don't – you know – make any suggestive comments or play a matchmaker. I won't come with you unless you promise you won't. You too Prongs."

"I won't say anything! Harry said he wanted to see her. Right, Harry?"

"Of course!"

"Oh, Harry you are _not_ allowed to bring out those pictures or anything like that! Imagine how awkward that would be!"

"Moony, relax. We are not idiots, we'll behave. Harry wanted to see Tonks and that's why we are going – believe it or not, embarrassing you is not our goal," James said soothingly.

"Speaking of the pictures," Harry said seriously, "Is there a way of making copies? Because I'd leave them to you if you want to keep them, but I'd rather duplicate them so I can have them as well."

"You can use Geminio," James replied, "but the copies would deteriorate faster than the original. We could ask someone who works for the Prophet how they do it."

Harry's mind immediately jumped to Luna Lovegood. "That's a great idea. If you don't know anyone personally I could try and get it touch with a friend of mine – her dad is the editor of The Quibbler so she may be able to help me." Harry reached into his pouch searching for the pictures when his hand brushed against something warm. Confused, he pulled out his DA coin and around the edge, instead of the date and time of the meetings that used to appear were the words "where r u. worried. r and h." Harry's jaw dropped. He quickly tapped the coin and sent "long story. i am safe."

He chuckled and said, "If any of you doubted Hermione, let me show you the way of communication that she created that works across different universes."

He started explaining how the coins were made and used, but was interrupted when his coin heated up again and the words changed to "patronuses and owls". Harry waited until the message cleared and the new one took its place, "ignore us. feared u died." His heart tightened. He imagined how freaked out they must have been. Ron and Hermione were not even in the UK so the rest of the Weasleys must have went to Grimmauld Place to try to find him and when the spells and owls ignored his existence they thought he died – and he was only gone for a day. Once again, Harry was rendered speechless by how much other people cared for him. He sent back "just us or da reading" and got a quick reply that said "just us". He then sent a series of messages "parallel universe – pulled by accident – dad remus sirius here – need to find a way back". He got back a "what" and a "bloody hell" which made him insanely happy because even in this situation their reactions were predictable.

"So are you going to spend the rest of your stay here ignoring us because you can talk to your friends," Sirius asked, sounding amused.

"They thought I died. I need to explain the situation to them, which is harder than it sounds when you only have enough space for a few words per message."

True to his words, he spent an hour explaining how he got here. Hermione asked some questions that he couldn't answer so Remus did. Then James and Sirius wanted to know what was Australia like and the whole thing grew into a casual but painfully slow and very bizarre conversation.

After a few hours like that, Remus stretched and said, "Well folks, I spent the previous night looking up those runes instead of sleeping so I am ready to pass out."

"Same here. Just keeping my eyes open is painful," James said with a yawn. Harry noticed that he had dark circles beneath his eyes and wondered how long did he stay awake after Harry went to bed last night.

"I am not tired at all," Harry said.

"Me neither," Sirius returned, "Moony could sleep in the guest room and you and I can stay here and transfigure the couch and the sofa into beds later."

"That works," Remus said and the matter was settled. Harry and Sirius talked late into the night – this time around mostly Harry asking questions and Sirius talking about all sorts of things like his job and some of the exciting cases he worked on in the past, his favourite Quidditch team and his years at Hogwarts. Once, he mentioned Regulus offhandedly and Harry deemed that he should tell him that his brother didn't die as a coward like he thought. He described his own trip to the cave with Dumbledore and everything Kreacher told him afterwards, but he didn't tell Sirius that the locket was a horcrux – instead he called it a magical artefact that was important for Voldemort's downfall. He told him that he'll explain it further tomorrow when they meet Dumbledore and that the real locket was probably still in his ancestral home.

"Thank you for telling me," Sirius said when Harry was done. His head was laid on Harry's shoulder who in turn had his arm around Sirius, holding him in a half-embrace. He knew from experience that just being there provided more comfort for someone who was mourning than any words could. They sat in companiable silence for a while and eventually Harry dozed off.


	10. Chapter 10

When he stepped through the fireplace he found Dumbledore's office already occupied by the Heads of Houses who were bringing their meeting to an end.

"Perfect! Just in time, Remus," said Dumbledore jovially. "I invited a few of your former students or classmates to join us for lunch today," he explained to the professors.

"Remus, It's good to see you. I hope you are well," said McGonagall.

"Wonderful, thank you. And you? Enjoyed your summer holiday?"

"It was fantastic! Pomona and I went to South America – the wizarding culture over there is truly riveting."

"Not to mention all the exotic plant species we found! I have already started rewriting the curriculum to include them," Sprout added.

"Sorry for the wait, Moony, we forgot that – Oh, hello! Why, ladies, you look so beautiful and tanned."

"Thank you, Sirius," Minerva said, in rather a chiding tone while Pomona blushed. Remus also caught sight of Snape looking at Sirius with the expression of pure hatred. This caused Remus to sigh inwardly. Ever since the incident in their sixth year, Snape was convinced that all of them tried to kill him, even though James actually saved his life. He hated them as a group and hated them individually – Remus because he was a werewolf, Sirius because he _did_ try to kill him and James because he survived when Lily didn't. This was not something they could apologise for and leave in the past like they could with bullying. He was slightly annoyed with Dumbledore for inviting them to Hogwarts on the same day that Snape would be present. It was irrational and Remus knew it, all of them were adults and should act accordingly, but the tension that was building up was unavoidable.

While he was contemplating this James and Harry arrived as well. Remus actually did a double take, because Harry had done such a good job of disguising that he wouldn't have recognised him if they passed each other on the street.

"Excellent – everyone is here. I think some introductions are in order. These are our Heads of Houses: Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall," Dumbledore pointed out to Harry, even though he knew it was unnecessary.

"How do you do," Harry replied politely. "I'm –, " he bowed his head and murmured something that Remus thought sounded like Roonil Wazlib but wasn't sure, " – John Watson."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr Watson," Flitwick said.

"Are you by any chance a healer or a detective," McGonagall asked.

"I am leaning towards detective work, funnily enough. I am glad you are a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fan – that's why I love my name, It's a good conversation starter."

Remus was glad that Harry used a name of a fictional character. It was easier to remember and that way there was less chance of Remus slipping up and calling him by his real name while in company. However, James and Sirius, who were still unfamiliar with Muggle literature did not have this advantage which was clearly shown on their bemused expressions.

"Is that what the Aurors fancy calling themselves today? Detectives? Pathetic. Of course, Black and Potter are conceited enough to believe they are solving crimes while actually going around and using their status of authority figures to tyrannize everyone," Snape scoffed.

Oh, here we go. Remus quickly grabbed Sirius' arm to prevent him from taking his wand out. They had talked about this several times over the years and Sirius had agreed that whenever they run into Snape, he should completely ignore him as he was unable to keep up the polite façade. Remus could brush off any snide remarks easily and even James had long ago learned how to engage in a round of verbal one-upmanship without losing his temper. Remus didn't feel the need to interfere – James could handle this. However, when he turned to look at him, he was startled to see that James was avoiding eye-contact and that his cheeks and neck were tinted with blush, from shame or anger Remus did not know, but he did know that this was not caused by Snape's words but the impression they might leave on Harry. He looked at Harry who was frowning in James' direction. This was not good. If Snape started talking about his behaviour during their teenage years or if Harry asked about it, James would not deny anything – he was honest by nature. But he would probably shrink away from Harry even more than he did in the past two days, during which he was already unnaturally quiet. Harry; however, wiped the frown off his face and replaced it with a grin.

"That's so admirable! You, sir, must be everyone's favourite professor. I've known a few educators who used their position as an authority figure to "tyrannize" as you've put it – but I'm so glad that is not the case here at Hogwarts. It's no wonder you are a Head of House when you treat everyone equally. It makes you more approachable, doesn't it? Do students always come to you for help? I bet you organise those group therapy sessions to help students to deal with bullying. Is that why you are wearing only black – to promote awareness of discrimination towards Muggleborns, Muggles, Squibs, people in same-sex relationships and magical creatures? Do you wear pink every October to increase awareness of Breast Cancer, too? I agree with you – I think that wizards should do more to help find the cure for diseases that affect Muggles."

Snape, who only looked annoyed when Harry started speaking, now looked furious. He tried to reach the door, but Harry kept blocking his way, never ceasing his flow of words.

"My best friend is a founder of The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare and she would be thrilled if someone like you joined in. We fight for the rights of house-elves who are often abused and overworked. Maybe you could mention it to your students on one of yours group therapy meetings – you see, we collect money to pay the wages to those elves who chose freedom –"

He never did get to finish his sentence because Snape finally managed to leave the room and close the door with a loud bang. Harry slowly turned around and looked at the other occupants of the room.

"What a hero. You see what dedication is? As soon as he heard of those poor elves, he ran to get the money for donation."

Sprout, who had her hand over her mouth, finally let out a laugh that she was holding the entire time. She was joined by everyone else and Remus noticed that even a few of the portraits chuckled. Sirius was beaming at Harry and Remus never saw him look so proud before. He himself was impressed with Harry's ability to call out on hypocrisy without saying anything insulting.

* * *

Snape apparently decided that he was not hungry so there was only eight of them in the Great Hall. The food was exquisite and it made Sirius wish to be a student once again. The conversation was flowing freely, Minerva and Pomona were describing their travels, Dumbledore telling bad jokes and Flitwick telling good ones. Whenever they asked Harry something about his past, especially regarding his education or parents, he would get fidgety and Sirius would cut in, helping him come up with answers or change the topic. Several times he forgot what Harry's fake name was and after he asked him for the reminder, Harry said, "John – like Moony's middle name and Watson like _What?_ and _son_."

"I like that – you should have chosen something easy to remember to begin with."

"Yeah, I can see a person whose name is a _serious colour_ thinking that."

"Shut up, you git."

It was strange, Sirius thought, that two days ago, he didn't know this person sitting next to him. At first, he thought that he liked and trusted him because he was James' son, but he soon realised that Harry was funny, likeable and _good_ in a pure sort of way that made Sirius think that he would have liked him even if he was John Watson and not Harry Potter. On top of that, hearing Harry talk about the other Sirius and Regulus created an emotional connection between them, making Sirius feel as if they've lived through it together. He also noticed the resemblance in their life stories: growing up in a household you didn't like, finding friends that will always be your true family, fighting a war, becoming an Auror. He prayed that the Dursleys were not as bad as his own family, but his instinct was telling him otherwise.

Once the lunch was over, they said their goodbyes to the professors and climbed back up to Dumbledore's office. Remus asked Dumbledore for his opinion on James' role in Harry's predicament which led to a discussion of magical cores and blood magic. Eventually, they repeated the story that Harry told them the day before. He, true to his word, looked completely disinterested in adding anything in. Instead he circled the office, examining the trinkets and books and petting Fawkes. When they finished and everyone looked at him, he was standing beside a Pensieve.

"Can I, professor? It's easier this way."

Dumbledore nodded, looking at Harry curiously. Harry pulled out his wand and placed its tip to his temple and then pulled it away, carefully lowering it into the basin, where the silver strand dissolved and swirled. He repeated this motion several times and then smiled at them.

"If you are ready and if you are interested, I've selected a few memories from my fourth year for you to see."

All of them quickly approached the Pensieve, while Harry stepped away.

"Aren't you coming with us," Remus asked.

"No thanks, once was enough for me. I'll stay here and hang out with Fawkes for a bit, if that's alright."

Sirius sucked in a breath, as if he was preparing to dive into water. When he opened his eyes, he found himself inside the Ollivander's Shop. _"Unusual combination, holly and phoenix feather."_ A very small and afraid looking Harry, wearing clothes that were several sizes too big for him reached towards it tentatively. Once the wand was in his hand, he seemed to gain some confidence. He swished the wand which was followed by an eruption of red and gold sparks.

 _"It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother – why, its brother gave you that scar."_

The scene changed. It was night-time and Harry looked several years older. Next to him stood a tall, lanky boy with red hair and a girl with enough hair for three people, both holding their wands like torches. A house-elf came out of the bushes, behaving very oddly. Harry, Ron and Hermione started walking, the Marauders and Dumbledore following after them. They passed several wizards, goblins and Veelas.

"This is the World Cup, isn't it," Remus asked.

"Yeah, it is. I think the same Death Eater riot that happened in our universe is happening here now," James explained.

Not long after he said the words, Bagman showed up and Ron confirmed James' theory. The three kids sat down in the clearing and were alone for a few minutes, but then a voice of an adult was heard – _"Morsmordre!"_

"Shit," Sirius said, looking up as the Dark Mark rose, causing the people in the memory that were hidden by the trees, to erupt in screams. Twenty wizards apparated onto the scene and Harry pulled his friends down, successfully avoiding the spells thrown at them.

"Great reflexes," Dumbledore noted, but he sounded worried. Sirius had to remind himself that Harry was back in the office, waiting for them so nothing too bad could have happened. They watched the memory unravel, showing the ministry employees arguing, throwing around accusations and for the first time in his life, Sirius felt sorry for a house-elf. The memory changed again and this time, they found themselves in the Great Hall. It was fuller than Sirius has ever seen it before and every person in it had their eyes on Dumbledore, waiting for something. Suddenly, flames erupted from the Goblet that stood beside Dumbledore and he caught the piece of parchment that shot out of it and read a name - this was repeated three times.

"Are the champions the same as in our universe," Remus asked.

"They are," Dumbledore answered.

 _"Harry Potter,"_ the memory Dumbledore said.

"I take that back. They are _not_ ," Dumbledore said breathlessly.

"I can't believe this is happening," James said, looking nauseous.

Sirius did not have to spend too long searching for Harry at the Gryffindor table because every other student was already looking at him. He looked as shocked as everyone else. They trailed him as he joined the other champions in the separate room. When fake Moody appeared Sirius had his attention fixed on him, trying to spot any differences from the real one. He was the only person watching this memory who knew who it really was, but Harry had surely put another memory that would reveal this to the others so Sirius remained quiet.

The next memory had nothing to do with the tournament. They saw Harry and Malfoy throwing spells simultaneously, one hitting a boy who stood next to Malfoy, the other one landing on Hermione whose front teeth started growing. _"I see no difference,"_ Snape said coldly and the poor girl burst into tears.

"I guess this was Harry's way of explaining his actions from this morning," Remus muttered darkly.

The grey dungeon walls turned into scarlet tapestries as the Gryffindor common room took its form. It was the first time since graduation that Sirius found himself here, but it did not look much different. Harry seemed to be alone, sitting next to a fireplace.

"Padfoot!" James yelled.

"What? What is it," Sirius asked.

"No, not you. Over there," James pointed towards the fireplace and Sirius saw his own head in it.

 _"But whoever put your name in that Goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."_

The scene changed again. It was starting to make Sirius feel dizzy and opening his eyes only to see a dragon in front of him was not helping. Despite that, this was the best memory so far. Watching Harry on a broomstick left everyone enthralled. Sirius should have known it was too good to last.

The next memory, which was very brief, showed Crouch Sr. saying, _"My son – my fault – tell Dumbledore"_

The memory swirled. When it solidified, it showed Harry and Cedric standing in front of the Triwizard Cup. _"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."_

 _"One. Two. Three."_

This time, when the scene changed it felt different than before. It wasn't a different memory - they just moved along with Harry and Cedric. _"Did anyone tell you the Cup was a Portkey?"_

Someone approached them. Harry dropped his wand and put his hands over his face, simultaneously falling down. He looked like he was in great pain, but Sirius didn't see where it was coming from. _"Kill the spare!"_

The strangled noises that escaped everyone watching came in three waves. First when Cedric's limp body fell down. The second time when Harry was tied up. Third – the angry hisses that came with the horrible realisation that it was their former friend doing all of this. Sirius felt bile rising in his throat. He looked at Remus, whose face was streaked with tears and James, who had clenched his fists, looking ready to strike. Dumbledore was staring at the bundle with horror – and seeing Dumbledore scared was something Sirius never wanted to see. It kept getting worse. A hand cut off. Harry's arm being cut. _"Robe me."_

They watched in silence as the Death Eaters appeared. Once Voldemort started talking about Lily's sacrifice, James started crying too. _"Dumbledore invoked an ancient magic, to ensure the boy's protection as long as he is in his relations' care. Not even I can touch him there."_

When Voldemort started crucio-ing Harry, Dumbledore shed a few tears. Sirius realised he was the only one not crying yet and wondered what could happen to push him over the edge. He kept on watching.

"Did you just see what I saw," Sirius whispered. "Has Harry just broken through the imperius cast by Voldemort?"

"He has," Dumbledore answered. Sirius once again had to remind himself that Harry was waiting for them back in the office, alive, impossible as it seemed. Harry's and Voldemort's wands connected, a gold web surrounding them and a phoenix song was heard.

"Fawkes," Dumbledore said.

And when a smoky, shadowy form of James Potter emerged right after Lily, Sirius finally reached his limit and started crying. It was clear that they were talking to Harry, but the four of them watching couldn't hear what was being said. Harry broke the connection, ran towards Cedric's body grabbed it and summoned the Cup. The colours swirled – again, it was not the memory changing, but the Portkey pulling them. _"He's back."_

The scene changed.

 _"It was I, who did that,"_ Moody said. He kept talking about how he pushed Harry through the task. _"He is back, Harry Potter, you did not conquer him – and now – I conquer you!"_ The memory Dumbledore barged into the room and stunned fake Moody. Eventually the polyjuice wore off and Barty was questioned under Veritaserum while Winky kept crying. James looked like he wished the real Barty Jr. was there so he could punch the living daylights out of him.

Next, they were in a dimly lit hospital wing and they could hear Fudge and McGonagall arguing.

 _"You are prepared to take Harry's word on this, are you, Dumbledore?"_ Fudge said.

The memory Sirius growled.

 _"You are prepared to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, on the word of a lunatic murderer, and a boy who… well…"_

 _"You've been reading Rita Skeeter, Mr. Fudge,"_ Harry said resignedly.

They watched Dumbledore and Fudge argue in quiet disbelief. The last memory showed Hermione pulling out a glass jar out of her bag, explaining to Harry and Ron how Rita Skeeter was actually an illegal Animagus.

When they were finally pulled out of the Pensieve, they found Harry reading a book. He glanced up at them and smiled. "So, how was it?"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Thank you so much to all the reviewers - nothing motivates me more than your kind comments and suggestions.

How was it. _How was it._ How about traumatising for a middle-aged man who only watched while a _child_ actually lived through it.

"A bit long. If only I'd known, I would have brought popcorn," Remus deadpanned while James and Sirius rushed towards Harry and started looking him over. Somewhere in the back of his mind, James knew he felt impressed and proud because Harry was so talented and strong-willed – but right now he was just _so_ angry. Angry, because it seemed as nothing could protect this boy – here, in this universe, he was killed in a hospital full of people and somewhere else even Hogwarts wasn't safe enough for him. If only he could have been there… But, even if he was, he wouldn't have been able to do anything, just like Dumbledore and Sirius of the other universe couldn't. Bloody prophecy. Crystal balls should be banned. Who was the idiot who thought 'Oh, I know! Let's invent something that will damn a person to a destiny that no one can prevent!'

"Are you checking me for injuries from something that happened more than three years ago," asked Harry, sounding amused. He was reclining in a yellow cushy chair and had several leather bound books stacked on his lap.

"How are you still alive," Sirius voiced the question that was on everyone's mind.

"I wouldn't be a very good Boy-who-lived if I wasn't, I imagine," Harry joked.

James hated that title. His son had been called that until he was murdered. For a few weeks, many years ago, people believed that Harry had some sort of immunity to the killing curse. Speaking of hidden abilities – "Are you really a parselmouth," he asked.

Harry frowned. "I don't remember that coming up in the memories I've shown you."

"Fudge mentioned it while he was arguing with Dumbledore," Remus explained, "I would, of course, be the last person to judge you for that, we are just curious because it is known to be hereditary." He glanced at James as if he was wondering if he had always been able to speak with serpents but failed to mention it.

"Well, I don't mind this coming up now because it ties nicely with the other thing I wanted to discuss," Harry said while searching through one of the books that were in front of him. Once he found the right page, he nodded to himself and passed it to Dumbledore.

"This means that Voldemort could rise again in this universe, doesn't it? He is just waiting for the opportunity," Sirius said.

"Should we find that graveyard and," James wrinkled his nose even as he said it, "destroy the bones? So he wouldn't be able to use the same ritual."

They glanced at Dumbledore to see what he thought of the idea, but he paid them no heed. He immersed himself into the book and at one point murmured "I should have known." Then, he levelled his piercing gaze on Harry and asked, "But, you are not one anymore? A parselmouth?"

"No, I'm not – I've lost the ability."

"Excellent! And you know what the other one is – the one that he made intentionally."

"The other six – and yes I do."

"Six!" Dumbledore exclaimed, horror-struck.

What were the two of them talking about – six parselmouths? That didn't make any sense. "Can someone elaborate," James said, sounding disconcerted. Several of the portraits nodded along, unabashedly eavesdropping.

"This book is one of the few I had removed from the Hogwarts library when I became the Headmaster – Its content is too dangerous, you see, even for the restricted section. It is called 'Secrets of the Darkest Art' and this," said Dumbledore, "this here is a chapter on something called a Horcrux." He cleared his throat and started reading a passage that described its purpose.

"The locket! That's what you meant – last night when you said… The locket is a Horcrux, isn't it," Sirius blurted out.

Harry nodded, "I'm glad you caught on so quickly. Would you like to tell everyone else about it or – "

Sirius shook his head, "No, you do it, please."

"Oh, okay then," said Harry concernedly, "Should I tell them everything?"

"If you want to - then yes. Why are you asking me," said Sirius with a shrug.

"Because, we can say where one of the Horcruxes is and how to get it – they don't need to know the backstory. It concerns only you – I won't share it if you are not okay with it," Harry explained.

James felt that spike of jealousy again. Harry and Sirius were sharing secrets now – and he couldn't even blame Sirius when it was all his fault. He had been avoiding Harry and he couldn't be angry at his friends for not doing the same.

Sirius smiled. "Thank you. I don't mind if you tell them what you told me – I just didn't want to talk about it myself."

Harry nodded and began narrating. With each word, the story turned more and more gruesome. James buried his face in his hands as soon as he heard about the Inferi. Brilliant – another thing that a child, his child, had to face. He also felt guilty about his earlier feelings towards his best friend. Regulus turned out to be more like Sirius than any of them ever suspected. Maybe, if they had tried harder, given him a chance, he could have been saved from the influence of the rest of his family and everything else that was bestowed on him. In the end, he died a hero when everybody else, Sirius especially, thought him a coward.

"They can be destroyed with Basilisk venom or Fiendfyre – I don't know what else, it doesn't say anything about its destruction in that book," Harry finished.

"Thank you, Harry. Sirius, could you please call your house elf to come here? I'd like to get rid of that locket today, if possible," Dumbledore said.

"Please be nice to him, will you? He really did change his attitude once everything was said and done back in my universe. Professor, we can go find another one while Sirius talks to Kreacher," said Harry.

"Another Horcrux," Dumbledore asked, surprised.

"The Ravenclaw's diadem – it should be here, in Hogwarts."

"There is a piece of Voldemort's soul in the castle," James squeaked at the same time that Remus said, "You mean the _lost_ diadem?!"

"Wow, Harry. You really should come with a warning. Attention! Dimension traveller – knows the most kept secrets in the world. Stop being surprised," Sirius said fondly.

"Yeah, Prongs. If meeting your children is going to save all of our problems, next time I'll let you play around my office as much as you want," Remus laughed.

"I should mention that for every problem I solve, I create another one - add that to your warning," Harry said.

"Ah, that reminds me of another group of my students with a similar tendency," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling, "Shall we, Harry?"

James thought of the Inferi again. Oh, hell no, he is not letting Harry out of his sight now. "Can I go, too," he asked.

"Yeah, sure. It will be pretty boring compared to everything else described here today – thank Morgana – but there is this cool room that I think you might not know about," Harry replied and the three of them left the office, leaving Remus and Sirius to deal with Kreacher. They climbed up to the seventh floor where Harry started pacing. Dumbledore seemed to think that his behaviour was normal, so James didn't say anything. Suddenly, a door appeared. Once opened, it revealed a gigantic room – if one could call it a room. It was more like a chamber filled to the brim with all sorts of objects – thousands of books in bookcases or tottering piles, furniture, suits of armour, jewels, portraits and bottles of potions – half of it looked very valuable while the other half was just rubbish. "You were right – I did not know about this," said James.

"You haven't seen its full potential yet – just wait until we find the diadem and I'll show you," said Harry. They didn't search for the diadem for too long – Harry knew exactly where to look. "It is safe to touch, but I'd strongly advise against putting it on your head," he said.

Dumbledore nodded and performed a detection spell before taking it and saying, "Lost for centuries and then returned to its original home, but tainted. I know Filius tried to find it – It will sadden him to learn about its fate."

When they came out of the room Harry turned towards James and said, "Okay, your turn now. Walk past this area three times and think of something you need - it won't work unless you really do - need it, I mean."

James did as he was told, but he wasn't sure if it would work because he didn't really need anything. The door appeared again and behind it was a small room with a fireplace, a large couch and a single bookcase. He glanced at the titles of the books in it and just managed to read 'Coping with Grief and Loss' and 'Bonding with Your Child' before panicking and closing the door to prevent Dumbledore and Harry from seeing what was inside.

"It's called the Room of Requirement. You can ask for whatever you want. You have to specifically state if you don't want anyone to find you inside and you can't get things like food – but it's still awesome," Harry said proudly, "and two Horcruxes today – I say we are doing well."

James saw the moment Harry's face fell. The boy looked at Dumbledore before hesitantly asking, "Sir, has the Chamber of Secrets been opened recently?"

"It has," Dumbledore answered, looking back at Harry intently.

"Has anyone been – ah – murdered," Harry asked.

"Thankfully, no. Not this time, at least. A few people have been petrified and then the attacks stopped – we never found out why or what caused them in the first place."

Harry was silent for a few moments. "I need to take a quick trip to Myrtle's bathroom," he said. He quickened his pace, almost running down the steps with James and Dumbledore at his heels.

"Myrtle!" Harry called as soon as he passed the threshold.

"What are you doing here? You are a _boy_ ," the ghost complained, but stopped when she saw Dumbledore.

"I'm terribly sorry to bother you. I just wanted to ask – a few years ago, did anyone throw a book at you?"

"What kind of question is that? Do you want people to start throwing things at me? Am I - "

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that. I just wanted – do you know if there is some sort of book in here? Maybe they didn't throw it at you, but just left it here instead? In one of the stalls?"

"I assure you there is nothing of the sort. I know every inch of this room and there certainly aren't any books hiding around. Don't waste your time looking," Myrtle said irritably.

Harry groaned. "Okay then, how do you two feel about visiting every bathroom in the school? We are looking for a black diary. I know! We should ask house elves to help."

James suddenly realised that Harry's behaviour wasn't odd because he was from another universe – it had more to do with the fact that Harry was barmy.


	12. Chapter 12

"Did you find it," Remus asked when the three returned to the office.

"Yeah," James said, nodding towards Dumbledore's hand, "you?"

Sirius pointed to the locket he had left on the desk and Albus put the diadem next to it.

Remus whistled. "That's two objects that belonged to the Founders. Perhaps he found something from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff to turn into Horcruxes too? Was it the sword?" He glanced at Harry for confirmation, but the boy was not paying attention to what they were saying. He was staring into the distance and twirling his wand absent-mindedly. James leaned in and whispered, "He thought he'd find another one in the castle, a third one, somehow connected with the Chamber of Secrets. We went to the kitchens and asked house elves if they could search the castle for a black diary – leather bound, empty pages – but we'll have to wait for at least two hours before they get back to us."

"Harry," Sirius called out, "I told Dora we would meet her at Leaky at five, we'd have to leave soon to make it, do you want me to cancel or…?"

"No, don't, I want to see her, and there is not much I could do until we find out if the diary is in the castle… If it's not," he sighed and looked at Dumbledore, "well, sir, then you should call the Weasleys."

Remus glanced at the others to see if they managed to follow Harry's train of thought – but of course, none of them did. Sirius just shrugged, James murmured something like, "at least better than the bathrooms," and Albus raised his white eyebrows but only said: "Certainly. Should we do it tonight?"

"Yeah, If it's possible," Harry replied. He ran his hand through his hair, ruffling it. Remus caught Sirius' eye and the two of them exchanged grins because that was such a _James_ thing to do – even if Harry seemed to be doing it as a nervous habit while Prongs used to do it on purpose.

"Come back here around seven, then," said Albus.

* * *

They were first to arrive to the Leaky Cauldron, so they just ordered butterbeers, deciding to wait for Tonks to come before ordering food. Harry noticed her the moment she came through the Muggle street entrance, the same one he used the first time he was here with Hagrid. Tonks was easily distinguished in a crowd because of her turquoise hair. This made Harry cheerful because he never saw her with that hair colour before, but it was one of Teddy's favourites –he was always sporting some shade of blue or green. Sirius waved to get her attention and she tripped over a chair on her way towards them. "Wotcher," she said a little breathlessly when she finally managed to sit down.

"Dora, you know James, this is Remus Lupin, he works -"

"Is he Moony? Then, yes, I know where he works," Tonks said.

"How, -" Sirius started saying, but was interrupted again.

"Do you remember when Williamson said something about his best friend and you took that as a personal offence and started arguing with him about who's friends are better?"

"Oh, I remember," James said with a laugh. "It was a competition with categories! He tried to organise a Quidditch match to prove that we would beat them."

"And he made a questionnaire where he put the pictures of Williamson, his friend and the two of you, then he gave it to all the witches and asked them to decide who is better looking. He also said that he wasn't including a picture of himself because it would be unfair to everyone else."

"Padfoot, you didn't!" Remus buried his face in his hands.

"Relax Moony, the two of you won anyway."

"You are missing the point," Remus said. "When did this happen?"

"About two years ago, I think," Tonks replied.

"Ah, yes. That would explain the weird looks I was getting back then," Remus said with a sigh.

"Back to the introductions – this is er, John Watson? John Watson. And this is Nymphadora Tonks, she's my cousin," Sirius said.

Harry, who was still chuckling at Sirius' shenanigans, shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Tonks."

They just ordered some soup and cornbread because they weren't very hungry after the hearty lunch they had at Hogwarts. It was, Harry mused, a miracle to be sitting at the same table with a healthy Sirius, alive James, Remus, who actually looked his age and Tonks, with hair as colourful as her personality. The conversation was free-flowing and the food was good and they were all _alive_ and Harry was happy. He looked around the room and caught Draco Malfoy staring at him. Uh-oh, he was wearing the same disguise as yesterday when they met in Madam Malkin's. Malfoy apparently decided that they are friends or something because he started approaching him.

"Guys," Harry whispered, "are you on speaking terms with the Malfoys? Is he coming to talk to you?"

"Definitely not," Sirius said.

Tonks whirled around to look, but relaxed when she realised he meant Draco and not Lucius Malfoy. "Nope, never talked to him," she said.

Harry groaned. "Great, it's me then – Hello! Well, isn't it the Malfoy heir?"

"You were right – I checked the anagram and looked in the book. It was just like you said," Draco told him.

Harry was stumped. Malfoy listened to him? What did he want now? "That's – good, I guess," Harry said.

"I wanted to ask what your name was," Malfoy said, his cheeks tinged with a blush. "Mine's Draco, by the way. I realised I only gave you my last name yesterday."

"It's John Watson," Harry replied.

"That's not a pureblood name," Malfoy replied.

"Excuse me?" Harry said, although he felt relieved. Malfoy seemed so out of character and Harry had a fleeting thought that if he offered him his hand this time, he wouldn't have an excuse to say no. This seemed more like a beginning of an argument which was a common ground between them.

"You said your parents are from England. You also said that you went to Durmstrang. Watson is not a pureblood name and they don't accept mud- I mean, muggleborns there."

"They accept half-bloods though," Sirius said and Harry silently thanked him. Malfoy froze, only now realising who else was sitting at the table. "John's mother is James' cousin," Sirius continued nonchalantly. "Speaking of cousins-"

"Draco, there you are. I was looking for you. What are you doing here?" Narcissa asked.

"Organising a family reunion, apparently," Tonks said with a grin.

Narcissa glanced at their smiling faces and hers froze in recognition for a fraction of time, mimicking that of her son, before she schooled it into an indifferent expression. "I see," she said. "Draco? Should I wait for you to finish this conversation or should I go to Gringotts alone and meet you elsewhere?"

"No, we are finished," he said quickly.

"Good," Narcissa said and walked away, Draco at her heels.

"He is really weird," Harry said.

"What was all of this about?" asked James.

"I met him at Madam Malkin's yesterday – told him Voldemort's dad was a Muggle. Apparently, he fact-checked me," Harry explained with a shrug.

"Do you normally go around telling people that?" Remus asked.

"Oh, no. We reached that topic somehow – yes, Durmstrang, Karkaroff, that was it. Although, to be honest, I sort of started it, I just wanted to irritate him, I guess."

Tonks narrowed her eyes, scrutinising him. She then took out her wand and cast a privacy spell around their table. "That's not what you really look like, is it? You are either under glamour or you used polyjuice – they look surprised when they turn to talk to you, like they're expecting you would look different. I notice these things, you see, because I am a metamorphmagus."

"No wonder you are an Auror," was all Harry said in reply.

"So you know me, then? You are someone I know under polyjuice, right?"

"What?" Harry said, bewildered.

"You knew I was a metamorphmagus already, otherwise you would have asked me to demonstrate," crowed Tonks. "You also called me Tonks, which is great, but people who've just met me usually try to call me Nymphadora first."

"Sirius told me both of those things about you before we came here," Harry replied.

"Yeah, I bet he did," Tonks said with an eye roll, "he also explained _your_ family tree to Malfoy and claimed you are _James'_ cousin, even though the two of you could have done it yourselves, but earlier he couldn't remember your name – ha, please, it's time for you to admit defeat."

Sirius shook his head sadly, "Damn, I used to think I was good at lying. What happened here was a disgrace – a disgrace!"

Harry laughed. "You really _are_ good at your job. Yeah, I do know you, but you don't know me."

"Are you a stalker, then?" Tonks said, with a cheeky smile. "Secret admirer?"

"Nope. Harry Potter – from another universe," Harry deadpanned.

"Give it up already! Who is he really?" she asked the Marauders.

"He really is Harry – Moony here did something in Mad Unspeakable fashion, playing his experiments and now we have to cover up for him," James said with a smirk.

" _My_ experiments?! Who in their right mind goes around the Department of Mysteries and touches random objects – pulling your kid from another universe is the best case scenario! You could have died!"

"Sure, I'll cover up for you because I am a good friend, but kidnapping other people's kids from their native universe and then playing innocent – tsk, Moony."

"You've always been a bad influence on us," Sirius quipped.

"You _are_ Harry Potter?"

Harry smiled. "Like you said – I am wearing a glamour. Your counterpart had already told me not to call her Nymphadora and she said she would never reach her mother's level of proficiency with household charms when she helped me pack."

Tonks was staring at him with her mouth open. "You are Harry Potter," she repeated.

Harry turned around to face the Marauders and said: "See, this is what my life is like every day. I go around and people look at my forehead and remind me what my name is."

"Oooh, that is so cool!" Tonks said.

"What? No! It's annoying, that's what it is – I can't even go to Diagon Alley without making it to the Prophet – or worse, Witch Weekly," he said with a scowl.

"That's not what I meant! I meant cool in 'Wow, parallel universes exist and there are other versions of me' sort of way. Tell me, what is my favourite hair colour where you come from?"

"Bubble-gum pink."

She instantly changed it, making Harry grin. "Yeah, that looks about right."

"So, what else is different in your universe?" she asked curiously.

Before Harry had the chance to reply, Ron, Fred and George came in through the entrance that opened up onto a courtyard and, once the brick wall was passed, Diagon Alley. One of the twins stepped into the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace and disappeared into the flames. Harry quickly got up and squeezed through the crowd, because from his position on the table he could neither hear nor lip-read whether they were going to the Burrow or Dumbledore's office. He missed his chance with the second twin as well, because a loud witch with a mauve pointy hat had been blocking his way. He managed to reach the fireplace just in time to hear Ron say: "Headmaster's office, Hogwarts!" His initial happiness that came from seeing Ron with both of the twins, two ears each, faded when he realised that this meant that house elves hadn't managed to find the Horcrux. What if Ginny, instead of throwing the diary into the loo, threw it in the lake, the Forbidden Forest or on some random street? What if someone else found it? He sighed and went back to the table.

"They went to Hogwarts."

The Marauders nodded in understanding and James left three galleons on the table. Tonks looked baffled, so Harry quickly added, "You can come with us, of course. I trust you and I think the Weasleys do too. You were friends with Charlie here as well, right?"

"I was. I still am. What is this about?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Harry replied before heading for the fireplace.

"Just go with the flow, that's the general rule when you are around Harry," Sirius told Tonks.

"Does he remind anyone else of Dumbledore?" Remus asked.

"You mean when he can't be bothered to explain what is happening, so people follow him around blindly and hope he is not crazy and in the end everything turns out well? – yeah, I thought so too," James said.

* * *

Dumbledore's office was way more crowded this time round. There were several large sofas instead of individual chairs that were there before. Mr and Mrs Weasley, their daughter, the three boys that they just saw in the Leaky Cauldron and another one, whom Tonks greeted with "Wotcher, Bill!" were already seated. Everyone seemed very confused as if to why they were here and Harry, who was the only one who knew the answer to that, seemed nervous.

"Ginny," he said, "do you still have the diary?"

"Excuse me?" she said, bewildered.

"Tom Riddle's diary? Do you know where it is?"

"I don't know who that is. Why would I have someone else's diary? Who are you anyway?"

Harry tousled his hair again – it definitely was a nervous gesture. "Have you ever written in a diary that writes you back?" he asked, his voice distraught.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Ginny huffed.


	13. Chapter 13

Harry could feel his cheeks heating up from embarrassment. His heart was pounding and he had trouble breathing. Right now, he would rather face Voldemort in the forest again than tell Ginny "Oops, my mistake, you can go home now. Sorry for interrupting your lives with this pointless meeting." They had no chance of ever finding that diary. Dumbledore said that no one died when the Chamber had been opened the second time in this universe – but, what if the diary fell into someone else's hands? Someone outside Hogwarts? Maybe that someone is already dead and Tom Riddle has a body. Maybe he even found Voldemort in Albania and the two of them are now making plans to rule the universe together.

Harry was starting to feel dizzy, but then he heard a soft croon coming from Fawkes which helped him calm down. He glanced at Ginny again and caught her staring at him coldly. It was such an alien feeling – Ginny Weasley being cold. His Ginny was warm, always warm, her smiles were bright, her hugs comforting, her laugh made his insides melt. This was not right. It almost – it almost felt like watching Horcrux Harry and Horcrux Hermione talking to Ron. It felt like a boggart, like a fear – that people he cared about the most would not feel the same way about him.

This was the third day he spent in this universe, but it hadn't sunk in until now that the people here are not the ones he knew back at home. Dumbledore was almost exactly the same like the one he knew from his world. Sirius was everything Harry imagined him to be when he pictured moving in with him – fun, caring, understanding and easy to be around. Remus was happier, but otherwise not different. James, he never knew, so he didn't have anything to compare him to. The Weasleys were a different story. This Mrs Weasley has never hugged him and made him fudge and jumpers and this Mr Weasley did not give him advice instead of keeping him in the dark back in his third year. Fred and George hadn't been his teammates who kept him alive in the Quidditch matches, Bill had not been hiding them in his own house during wartime… But Ron was the worst. He was looking at Harry _curiously_. No sign of recognition at all. Sure, Harry was still wearing a glamour, but it still didn't change the wrongness of the whole situation. Because Ron should have given him his usual look that says 'You've got this, mate' that Harry didn't even know _was_ a look until now when it wasn't on Ron's face anymore. Ron took over from Harry in front of the DA when Harry was too overwhelmed to speak and they stood up to everyone together - Malfoy, Snape, Lockhart, the entire Ministry. Harry reached into his pocket and gripped the fake galeon to remind himself that _his_ Ron was in another universe and Harry could ask him for advice about the diary and anything else while he was here. Then Dumbledore came to his help.

"It's okay, Harry, we'll continue looking for it. We'll find it. You helped so much already by just telling me what it is – you don't have to do anything else," Dumbledore said. "Should I explain your situation to everyone here…?"

Harry nodded. It alleviated his concern somewhat and he felt less embarrassed about gathering a room full of people over nothing – but it still didn't solve the problem. The diary could be anywhere. Because of that, Voldemort was still alive. And, as much as Harry tried to convince himself that this was not his problem, he could not just let all these people die – as long as he could do something to prevent it. He sat down and listened as Albus told everyone how he came to be here.

* * *

When his father told him that he and his siblings were needed at Hogwarts, Bill didn't know what to think. The only one in the family who hasn't graduated yet was Ginny (which made Bill feel old), but it was summer - this could not be anything school related. When he arrived at Dumbledore's office, his parents and his sister were already there. The headmaster explained that a third party had a few important questions to ask them, but he knew little else.

The important question turned out to be "Did Ginny still have the diary?", which was odd enough - but stranger still was when Dumbledore introduced the boy as Harry Potter. It was not the boy-who-vanquished-the-dark-lord everyone knew to be dead - it was his counterpart from another universe. When he dropped his glamour Bill noticed the similarities with one of the three men who arrived with him. _So that's James Potter_ , he thought.

"So -" Fred started, "parallel universes exist and Harry Potter can travel between them, but when he does -"

"-he gathers us all to ask ickle Gin-Gin about a diary?" George finished.

Harry cringed. "Okay, first of all, it's not 'Harry Potter can travel' – everyone can travel – I think. This was an accident. Ginny, I am sorry, It's just that – Merlin, I think I'll have to explain the whole thing because I don't know _how_. Professor, can I use your Pensieve again?"

"I'm afraid not all of us can fit inside it, Harry. We could, I suppose, split into three groups and watch it one after another, if it isn't too long -"

"It is," Harry groaned. "Great, so I need to talk again. Okay, people, get comfortable and if you are not in a mood for a story, now is the time to leave."

Nobody moved.

"Okay, then."

"It was the summer after my first year, when I walked into my room and found a house-elf in it. Now, I've never seen a house-elf before, and -" Harry Potter said.

Bill commiserated with him after he heard of his punishment and he even overheard his mother murmur "Poor boy". He still didn't understand why was he telling them all this - so imagine his surprise when Ron and the twins made their debut.

"But why would Ron-"

"I can't believe you!"

"Mom, you can't yell at us for doing something in a _parallel universe_ –"

"You have a flying car? I have a flying motorcycle!"

"Really? Can I see it?" Mr Weasley said eagerly.

"Can everyone please calm down and let Harry talk?" Tonks said.

Ron, who was sitting next to Bill, didn't say anything, but his ears turned red. It never occurred to Bill that Harry Potter would have been in the same year as Ron if he hadn't been killed. He wondered what it would feel like to be Ron right now - sitting here and listening how different your life could have been.

Harry described his mishap with the floo network and recounted meeting Lucius and Draco Malfoy in Knockturn and Diagon Alley. Bill raised his eyebrows at hearing about the fight his dad got into at Flourish and Blotts - that had never happened here. None of those things happened here and yet they were undoubtedly true. The personalities of his family members and their actions in these unfamiliar situations were exactly like Bill expected them to be.

"So of course, the two of us, being twelve, thought that the only possible solution was to fly the car to the school -"

"Ronald Weasley!"

"You can't tell me off for something I could have hypothetically done," Ron muttered.

"But it certainly helps me set the mood for the story. That's exactly how the start of your howler sounded," Harry said.

Bill chuckled.

"That was not until the day after, though. First, the Invisibility Booster malfunctioned, we were seen by seven Muggles, we landed right on the Whomping Willow, Ron's wand broke, we were late for the Feast and before we could sneak in, Snape caught us. On the bright side, we weren't expelled and we didn't even lose any points - one detention each and a howler - that's getting off lightly, I think."

Not many interruptions were made after that, everyone eagerly listened as Harry described the voice he was hearing, the attacks, Dobby's visit after he tampered with a Bludger, the duelling club, the making of Polyjuice Potion, Harry's experience with the diary and how it was stolen, Hermione's petrification, Hagrid's arrest and Dumbledore's suspension, the trip to the Forbidden Forest and how Ford Anglia saved them. He then explained the conclusions they drew – about Myrtle being the victim, the monster being a giant Basilisk and how no one looked directly into its eyes, how it moved through the plumbing which led them to realise that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"We were going to tell McGonagall, but before we had the chance we overheard the teachers talking – Hogwarts was to be closed a day later, there was a new message that said **Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever** and Ginny had been kidnapped."

Suddenly everything started making sense. Bill wanted to get up and touch his sister just to make sure she was really okay. He saw that his mother was already hugging her and crying. Everyone else started asking questions at the same time before deciding it would be easier to let Harry finish.

Harry then told them about Lockhart and how his attack led to Ron and him being separated. He described the chamber and repeated what Tom Riddle told him.

 _"Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted… I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets."_

Bill was a curse breaker, so he had a very good idea what that meant. He wanted to help these people find that diary – even if it wasn't Ginny who wrote in it in this universe. He never heard of that bloke Riddle, but he knew he was dangerous. Who would let a Basilisk go after students and _make a Horcrux –_ and then Harry told them who.

Voldemort has a Horcrux.

Voldemort is alive.

Bill wanted to scream.


	14. Chapter 14

People in the room were leaning in, eagerly waiting for the continuation of the story, when the fire flared up, making some of them jump. Percy stepped out, curiously scanning the scene before him. "Sorry I'm late – I had to finish the report I was working on," he said awkwardly and then proceeded to use a cleansing spell to remove the soot from his robe. "Is everyone okay?"

"Everybody's all right, Mr Weasley. I'm afraid we have started without you, but you can catch up later. Please have a seat," Dumbledore said kindly. Percy nodded and joined Bill and Ron on their sofa.

"Why is mother crying?" he whispered. Bill glanced towards the sofa where his parents and sister were seated. His mother was wiping her eyes with a napkin while her left arm was flung protectively around Ginny's shoulders. "It's complicated," Bill replied, "listen to Harry and we'll fill you in later."

When Harry got to the part of the story where he pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat, Bill whistled appreciatively and eyed the Hat that was sitting on a shelf behind headmaster's desk. Percy poked him to get his attention again and asked, "Where did this happen?"

"In the Chamber of Secrets."

Percy's eyes widened in surprise.

Bill, along with the rest of the Wizarding World, knew that the Slytherin's monster was a basilisk – the Chamber had been opened in their universe too, after all, and the two students that have been petrified described the giant snake after they were treated with Mandrake Restorative Draught. However, there was not much anyone could do about it because the basilisk never appeared again and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets still remained that – a secret.

Harry went on to explain how he slew the basilisk, but almost got killed himself because of its venom. When he told them how he stabbed the diary with a fang, thus destroying Tom Riddle and saving Ginny, Percy interrupted again.

"What? No! That never happened! What are you talking about? Ginny never – "

"Percy, shut up. You missed almost the entire story – someone will explain it to you later," Fred said.

"Fred," Mr Weasley scolded.

"Anyway, Ron had made a hole large enough for us to pass," Harry continued after an awkward pause, "and Lockhart was awake, but he couldn't even remember who he was and still to this day he can't."

"He deserves it," said one of the men sitting on the sofa next to James Potter and a few people murmured in agreement.

When it was revealed that Lucius Malfoy was the one who slipped the Diary in Ginny's cauldron, Bill felt angry, but also worried. Malfoy was capable of going to extraordinary lengths to harm their family and even though everyone was safe and sound at the moment, the location of the diary was still unknown.

Harry managed to end the story on a positive note by describing how everything went back to normal because that same night petrified students woke up and Hagrid returned. Bill hugged Ron and whispered in his ear "Look how brave you are – willingly going after your biggest fear into the Forbidden Forest and everything else."

"But It wasn't really me," Ron replied. "I never did any of those things."

"Yes, but this proves that you would have done them if you had been in a similar situation," Bill said with a grin.

He then turned towards Percy, who was looking deathly pale.

"I don't understand," he whispered.

"I'm not surprised – I'm baffled by most of it and I was here from the beginning. I know it's hard to believe, but that over there is Harry Potter. He comes from a parallel universe where he knows us because he is Ron's best friend. They need to find that diary in order to destroy You-know-who and he thought that Ginny would know where it is because she had it in his universe."

"I didn't know Tom Riddle is You-know-who," Percy said.

"Neither did I," Bill replied.

"No, you don't understand. He was a Head Boy, his name was in the trophy room – I just – I just wanted advice, I never knew…" Percy's voice cracked. It started to dawn on Bill what Percy was talking about.

"It was – it was _you_?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I stopped using it, I swear -"

"Percy, calm down – no, Percy, listen to me. Do you know where that diary is right now?"

Percy nodded. He looked like he was about to start crying.

"Okay, everyone shut up!" Bill yelled.

His mother looked at him in surprise. "Bill, don't be rude!"

"I'm not being rude, this is important – Percy knows where the diary is."

"Where is it," Harry Potter asked with an authoritative air.

"It's in my flat-"

"When was the last time you wrote in it?"

"Five years ago. I'm sorry, I-"

"Do you suffer from mood swings? Intense negative emotions? Anger?"

"No, I don't. I haven't written in it-"

"I understand, but even being near those things can affect you. It would be the best if we destroyed it today. Can you go home and come back here with it?"

"Certainly. I'll go. I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

"I'll go with him," Bill said.

"Me too," Arthur added.

Percy didn't have a fireplace at his flat – he had arrived straight from the Ministry earlier – so they left the office through the door. They were going to walk to Hogsmeade and then apparate to his flat, which gave them more than enough time to talk.

"Percy," Mr Weasley said sadly, "you should have told us."

"I'm sorry – I was afraid."

"But you were in your sixth year – surely you realised that the diary was cursed and that it wasn't your fault? Did you really think Dumbledore wouldn't have believed you? " Bill asked.

"When I stopped writing and no more attacks happened – I debated whether to tell someone."

"Why didn't you?" Mr Weasley asked.

Percy blushed. "You have always told us not to trust these things and I was ashamed… And I didn't want to tell the Headmaster because -" he paused, looking very uncomfortable, "he wouldn't have picked me for Head Boy if he knew."

Bill shook his head, feeling dismayed. Percy really needed to learn to sort out his priorities.

* * *

This turnout of events took a load off of Harry's mind. They managed to find three of the Horcruxes today after all – just with minor complications. Compared to 'Umbridge is wearing it around her neck' episode, this could hardly even be called a complication. He looked up and saw Mrs Weasley approaching him.

"I'm really glad I had the chance to meet you – even though it makes me even more sad about your death here," she told him.

Harry smiled. "It's nice to see you too, Mrs Weasley. I'm sorry for interrupting your evening like that, thankfully everything turned out okay," he said.

"You must visit us at the Burrow, one of these days!"

"Of course I will," he assured her.

Harry noticed what seemed to be a line of people waiting to talk to him. James was giving him a look that said 'We need to talk' and Harry immediately regretted mentioning locked doors and bars on the windows. It was fortunate that twins were there too.

"Ah! Fred, George, do you know these people? This over here is Moony; that's Padfoot; that's Prongs -" like he predicted, Fred and George's interest in _him_ lessened immediately.

"No way!" George said gleefully.

" _You?_ " Fred asked. "We have so many questions – you have no _idea._ "

Someone nudged his shoulder and when he turned around and saw Ginny – he almost forgot himself and kissed her.

"I'm sorry about being a bitch earlier," she said.

"What? No! You weren't being a… I mean, It's my fault, I shouldn't have assumed -"

"Relax!" she laughed, "How am I going to believe you go around doing heroic deeds if you get this flustered in a simple conversation?"

"Shut up," Harry said with a smile, while swiping a hand through his hair. "Basilisks, I can take. Your hexes, I'd rather avoid."

"Smart choice," she assured him. "Anyway, I'll leave you alone now, you seem like you need it. Although, it's only a matter of time before those two stop fangirling over their childhood heroes and start pestering you."

"When that happens, you should create a diversion and I'll make a run for it," he joked. Ginny winked and left.

And then there was Ron - "Hi," he said simply.

Harry fought the urge to immediately attack him with questions like 'Who is your best friend here?' and 'Are you and Hermione together?', so he opted for: "This is a bit weird."

"Tell me about it," Ron said with a laugh. "At first I thought, 'Why the hell does this guy want to talk to us about a House Elf?' and then it was me you were talking about. If someone else tried to convince me that they know me from another universe, I'd tell them to visit St Mungo's. But I believed you almost immediately. Are you aware that you mimic Fred and George when you talk about them? And me too? You swear more, I noticed," he explained.

"No, I didn't know that," Harry said. "Wait, did I mimic anyone else?"

"Hermione. You moved your eyebrows more and your tone would become bossy. "

Harry laughed. "I wanted to ask you about her. Are you and Hermione friends here, too? "

"We are. I doubt we are as close as the people you know, because we didn't become friends until the fifth year. So, what brings you to this dimension?"

"My father, actually. He's one of the people the twins are talking to. He touched something he shouldn't have in the Department of Mysteries and voilà – I appeared. Don't tell anyone, though. Only the people in this room know about it. To everyone else I'm John Watson, his cousin."

"So you are here alone? When did you come?"

"Yep, all alone. I did manage to contact Ron and Hermione from my universe yesterday, through some secret message thing we have. I arrived on Friday evening, so I haven't been here that long at all."

"That's crazy," Ron sat down next to him. "So how long are you staying?"

"I guess until they figure out how to send me back. I really have no idea. I just figured, I'd help by sharing useful information before I leave."

"But it must be really weird, being around all of these people that you know, but they have no idea who you are. I mean, how does your dad handle it?"

"It's a bit awkward. I don't know him either – he died in my universe around the same time I died in this one. So, I guess it's a good opportunity for me to get to know him. What do you do? As a job, I mean? "

"I'm going through training – I'm an apprentice in a workshop where we cast permanent charms on objects. I usually work with wood – not wands, obviously – but the interest actually came from -"

"Chess," Harry finished for him.

"Yeah, exactly," Ron said with a grin. "Do I do the same thing in your universe?"

"No, both of us are starting Auror training in September, actually."

"No way! I got in? That's insane. I didn't even take potions for my N.E.W.T. – level classes."

"We got accepted without any of that – we didn't even go to our seventh year. But you heard what my second year was like, now imagine something like that happening every year. We joke that we are seasoned professionals. But it was a war, you know. I'm glad you didn't have to go through it."

Ron studied him for a moment. "I would ask you to tell me more, but I guess it's not something that you want to talk about."

"It's hard. I was telling them about some of it before. It's easier when I give them my memories. They watch in a Pensieve while I hang around here. It's not something I want to see again. I've seen several people from this room die, you know. "

Ron tensed. "I guess some of them from my family?"

"One."

"Who?"

"Are you sure you want to know? "

"I'm not. But I might feel better knowing exactly who it was, rather than thinking it could be any one of them."

Harry glanced around to make sure no one was listening in.

"Don't tell your mother. Don't even tell her anything about a war, okay? "

Ron nodded.

"It was Fred."

Ron sucked in a sharp breath.

"Is George…?"

"I check up on him every day. We all do. He is not well, obviously. But I guess the silver lining is that he already lived through the worst day of his life – so nothing could ever be as bad as that, right? It can only get better from here. We were thinking of making a portrait of Fred, but we are not sure if that's going to make it better or worse."

"What a nightmare."

"What's a nightmare?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing!" Harry and Ron said at once.

"Oh, will you look at that!" Fred exclaimed.

"Already talking in unison and sharing secrets!" George said.

"Making plans to steal another flying vehicle, are we? Nice try with distracting us, by the way," Fred added with a wink.

"It totally worked," Harry said with a smile, although it was a bit forced considering the conversation he just had.

"Well, I'm glad I've learned the fate of the map. We don't need it back, just make sure Ginny passes it on to someone else when she graduates – legacy and all that," Remus said.

"Oh, don't you worry Moony. I'll make sure Teddy gets it," Harry said with a grin.

"Who's Teddy?" Tonks asked.

Remus quickly put a hand over Harry's mouth, much to James and Sirius' amusement. He was saved from answering the question by the return of Arthur, Bill and Percy.

"We are back to the business. Well, I think Bill and Dumbledore can handle it themselves, but I doubt they'll do it here. I would pick a dungeon for the job," Harry mused.

"What job?" Ron asked.

"Pyromania. Fiendfyre. You know, the kind that would make Seamus jealous. I, personally, don't dig it. More of a sword person."

"You are coming off as slightly unhinged," George remarked.

"What can I say? I get it from my godfather," Harry replied.


	15. Chapter 15

_It's strange,_ James thought, _that he looks so much like me._ James only vaguely resembled his late parents. His cousins looked nothing like him either – perhaps because his family was multiracial, and the gene pool big. Looking at Harry felt like coming across a photograph of himself that he couldn't remember being taken. Listening to Harry talk, however, was like watching an intense game of Quidditch. The exhilarating action gets your blood pumping and you desperately need your team to win. You catch yourself screaming at the players to watch out for the Bludgers even though they can't hear you, you want to join the game, do anything to help… And just like that it's over, the Basilisk is dead, Sirius escaped, Voldemort lost in a duel – and Harry caught the Snitch every single time.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" James said.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Depends. Can I choose not to answer some of them?"

 _He'd rather not talk about it,_ James told himself, _but he anticipated this._ "Yeah, of course. As long as you are honest about everything else."

Harry glanced at the back of his right hand and smiled ruefully. "You can cast that spell Dumbledore used two days ago, if you'd like."

"No, I… trust you," James said.

Harry's smile became more genuine. "Okay then. Shoot."

"Was every year at Hogwarts as eventful as those three you told us about?"

"Well, apart from the Tournament and the petrifications – we usually have a relatively normal year with a dramatic ending. And I only count the first six because we didn't go back to Hogwarts after Dumbledore died."

"Oh. How did he –I mean, something must have happened, because he is alive here. . ."

"One of the Horcruxes had a very dangerous protection – it had left him with a year to live."

"Oh." James said again. He sensed that Harry was leaving stuff out on purpose, but James didn't want to press him for more information. Judging by the conversations he had witnessed so far, Harry used to be very close to Albus – his death was probably a painful topic. It was for this same reason that James didn't want to ask what happened to Sirius and Remus in Harry's universe.

"How come you are a parselmouth? You haven't really explained."

"Maybe I'll explain it some other day."

James wasn't too happy with the 'maybe', but he decided to let it go. The question he was going to ask next seemed more important, but James was almost afraid to find out the answer.

"Why did they lock you in your room?"

"I have explained that one already. Dobby used magic in front of guests -"

"I meant, why did they try to stop you from going to Hogwarts?"

"They feared that I would come back and turn them into pigs or something," Harry said with a shrug.

"In other words, they expected revenge."

Harry was silent.

"Did they beat you?" James asked, feeling heartsick.

"No. No, it wasn't like that… They just didn't care about me. It used to bother me when I was little, but since I got my letter I got over it. I had Hogwarts to look forward to and I spent a part of every summer holiday with Ron. I haven't seen Dursleys since I turned seventeen, but I've heard from Dudley – he's alright."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault." His hand gave a dismissive wave. "It's not even Dumbledore's fault and there was a time when I was angry with him for sending me there. That blood ward saved my life. If you had that sort of protection in this universe, things might have been different… _That_ wasn't your fault either – or Dumbledore's. There are plenty of people to blame – Voldemort, Crouch, Wormtail, Sn-" Harry abruptly stopped talking. "No one is blaming you. You shouldn't, either."

James didn't know what to say to that. He knew, rationally, that he couldn't have protected his son while being in a coma. He always understood that. But understanding that something was not your fault and not feeling guilt did not always go hand in hand. Lily had given her life to save their son, but James' weak attempt against Voldemort hasn't helped anyone. And the one question that plagued his mind for years will be left unanswered until his own death – Does _Lily_ blame him for what happened to Harry? For trusting Wormtail? Not joining them in the afterlife? Because, after years of debating whether to take his own life, James decided that he would stay – for Sirius and Remus. He would live for his friends, instead of dying for his wife and son – does she blame him? He was afraid to find out.

"It's morning in Australia," Harry said.

James looked at him inquiringly, now already used to Harry's jumbled train of thought. Harry was fiddling with his fake galleon. "If you don't have any more questions, I'd like to contact Ron and Hermione…"

"Ah, yes of course. Sorry. I'll go to bed then. Do you need anything for tonight?"

"Nah, thank you. I'll go to sleep as soon as I'm done talking to them."

* * *

"Oi, Harry! Wake up!"

Harry groaned. He reached for his glasses and when he put them on, the blurry form standing in front of him turned into Sirius. "What is it?"

"Moony needed Prongs as a lab rat for his experiment. They are trying to figure out how to send you home and I was appointed as your babysitter."

"Shouldn't I be there?"

"Apparently not. Moony said that the cause was more important than the effect – he said something about variables too, but I forgot which one were you supposed to be."

"What?" Harry said obtusely. "Actually, don't bother explaining. I'm not fully awake yet."

"I'll leave you to get ready, but please be quick, I've made plans for eleven – and wear Muggle clothes!"

After he showered and got dressed, Harry found Sirius waiting for him in the living room. "Do I need a glamour?"

Sirius looked at him critically and said, "Not as detailed as the one you've put on so far, but for safety reasons – let's just turn your hair brown, alright?"

Harry nodded. "Where are we going?"

"To my place first and then we'll go to Muggle London to grab some breakfast – the address is Number 7, Talbot Road."

Harry grabbed some floo powder and went through first. When he came out of the fireplace, he looked around – in front of him was an exposed brick wall with several windows, while the other walls were plain white, decorated with lamps and shelves. Surprisingly, there were no red and gold decorations – most of the furniture was a neutral colour, like dark grey.

"What do you think," Sirius asked.

"I really like it. It suits you. Do you clean by yourself or does Kreacher do it?"

"Yesterday was the first time this year I saw Kreacher – I don't go to Grimmauld if I don't have to."

Harry nodded in understanding. He felt the same about Privet Drive. "I'm a little bit surprised that you are so tidy."

"After you turn 17 and anything can be done with a flick of a wand, it becomes a habit. You just need to learn a few charms, that's all." Sirius sighed. "Listen, I have to ask – did you and James have a fight last night?"

"What? No. He asked me some sensitive questions, but I think we handled it well. Did he tell you something?"

"No, we barely had time to talk since you came. He just seems off, you know. I thought it would have passed by now."

A doorbell rang. "Wait here, I want to introduce you to someone."

Harry heard the door being opened and a female voice saying, "Look who remembered he has a girlfriend." _Well, that's new,_ Harry thought.

"It had been a chaotic couple of days and I've been around magic most of the time, so I wasn't able to use my phone, you know that," Sirius explained. He came back to the living room with a beautiful, tall girl at his side. She was wearing a summer dress, sneakers and a denim jacket. She waved at Harry and said, "Hi James!" before realising her mistake.

Sirius laughed. "Harry, this is Victoria, my girlfriend. Vic, Harry is my godson – that's why you thought it was Prongs."

"But didn't you say he was… Did you bring him back from the dead? _Can you do that?_ " Victoria asked, looking slightly unsettled.

"No, he just came from a different universe," Sirius replied. "That's why I've been busy this weekend, he came on Friday -"

"Sirius, is it the best idea to share that kind of information? No offence, but the number of people who already know is bigger than we planned…"

Victoria laughed. "No need to worry, my dear. Who do you think I would tell? Toffee? Gandalf?"

"She means Fudge and Dumbledore," Sirius explained. When Harry still looked sceptical, Sirius added, "She's a Muggle."

"Oh!" Harry looked at her again. "Yeah, that makes more sense, you mentioned a phone… So is the Statute of Secrecy not a thing in this universe, or did you choose to ignore it?"

"It's hardly the first law I've broken," Sirius winked.

"And it won't be the last," Harry replied with a smile.


End file.
